Politolana Bruce, 1981

Sidabalok, Conni M. & Bruce, Niel L., 2016, Redescription of three cirolanid isopods (Crustacea: Peracarida) from Indonesia, Zootaxa 4114 (3), pp. 277-290 : 285-286

Genus Politolana Bruce, 1981

Politolana Bruce 1981: 958 .— Wetzer, Delaney & Brusca 1987: 1.— Kensley & Schotte, 1989: 140.— Riseman & Brusca 2002: 57.— Frutos & Sorbe, 2010: 20 .

Type species. Aega polita Stimpson, 1853 ; by original designation ( Bruce 1981).

Remarks. Politolana Bruce, 1981 was established to accommodate six species formerly placed in Cirolana . Riseman & Brusca (2002) described a further two species when revising the genus together with a phylogenetic analysis, concluding that Politolana is paraphyletic and suggested that three species be removed from the genus as they lacked the synapomorphies for Politolana s. str., these being Politolana crosnieri Bruce, 1996 , Politolana dasyprion Bruce, 1991 and Politolana obtusispina ( Kensley, 1975) ; these three species were regarded as incertae sedis within the genus sensu lato. The genus now has 14 species ( Schotte et al. 2008 onwards) including Politolana stebbingi (Nierstrasz, 1931) comb. nov. The known species distribution is largely antitropical, i.e. Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of California, south Pacific and South Africa ( Riseman & Brusca 2002), however Politolona stebbingi expands the range into the equatorial central Indo-West Pacific region.

Politolana is distinguished from other cirolanid genera by the elongate body (2–3 times as long as greatest width), narrow and slender frontal lamina, small eyes, antenna peduncle articles 1–2 the shortest and articles 3–5 subequal in length, ischium-merus of pereopod 1 anterodistally produced, pleopod 1 peduncle subquadrate, and the apomorphic characters—lateral margins of pleonites 2–4 with a ventral fringe of setae, produced posterolateral margin on the posterior of pleonites 1–4 or on 1 and 4 only and the absence of carina on the coxae of pereonite 7 ( Riseman & Brusca 2002).