Alainosquilla foresti Moosa, 1991

Ahyong, Shane T., 2002, Stomatopoda (Crustacea) of the KARUBAR Expedition in Indonesia, Zoosystema 24 (2), pp. 373-383 : 374-376

Alainosquilla foresti Moosa, 1991

( Fig. 1 )

Alainosquilla foresti Moosa, 1991: 167-169 , fig. 3. Type locality: New Caledonia. — Manning 1995: 19. MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Kai Islands, stn DW18, 05°18’S, 133°01’E, 205-212 m, 24.X.1991, 1 tl 20 (MNHN).

DIAGNOSIS. — Cornea subglobular. A2 protopod with flattened, articulated plate on inner dorsal margin. Raptorial claw with terminal ischiomeral articulation; propodus pectinate, with one movable spine proximally; dactylus with two teeth, uninflated basally. Abdominal somites subcylindrical in cross-section, without dorsal carinae; articulation compact. Telson with distinct MD carina, short anterior SM carinae, minute SM and two IM denticles. Uropodal protopod with one primary spine; exopod segments with terminal articulation.

DISTRIBUTION. — New Caledonia and now from Indonesia at depths between 110 and 212 m.

REMARKS

The specimen agrees well with the holotype (tl 17) but shows several size related differences: the rostral plate is slightly broader, the median carina on the telson is sharper, and four instead of three movable spines are present on the outer margin of the uropodal exopod. The present specimen is female and the type series is based on subadults (and possibly some postlarvae), so the adult morphology of the endopod of the male first pleopod remains uncertain.

According to Moosa’s (1991) account, Alainosquilla resembles eurysquillids in having a depressed, loosely articulated body, and resembles gonodactylids in bearing a fixed dorsal process on the antennal protopod and in having subterminally articulated uropodal exopod segments. Re-examination of the type material along with the present specimen shows that the body is strongly convex with compact articulation, the dorsal process on the antennal protopod is articulated and the uropodal exopod segments are terminally articulated, as in hemisquillids and pseudosquillids. Alainosquilla foresti is rediagnosed above.

Family ODONTODACTYLIDAE Manning, 1980

Figures

FIG. 1. — Alainosquilla foresti Moosa, 1991, tl 20 mm; A, anterior cephalon, dorsal; B, raptorial claw, right lateral; C, TS5-8, right dorsal; D, AS5-6, telson and uropod, dorsal; E, uropod, right ventral; F, telson, right lateral. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.