Scopelocheirus Bate, 1857

Kilgallen, Niamh M. & Lowry, James K., 2015, A review of the scopelocheirid amphipods (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Lysianassoidea), with the description of new taxa from Australian waters, Zoosystematics and Evolution 91 (1), pp. 1-43 : 4

Scopelocheirus Bate, 1857

Callisoma O.G. Costa, 1840: 5 (nomen nudum). - A. Costa 1851: 1 (homonym, Coleoptera). - Lilljeborg 1865a: 33. - Lilljeborg 1865b: 23. - Heller 1866: 26. - Boeck 1871: 101. - Boeck 1872: 131. - G.O. Sars 1890: 52. - Della Valle 1893: 838.

Scopelocheirus Bate, 1857: 138. - Stebbing 1906: 61. - Chevreux and Fage 1925: 54. - Stephensen 1929: 64. - Schellenberg 1942: 110. - Gurjanova 1951: 241. - J.L. Barnard 1969: 362. - Lincoln 1979: 50. - Diviacco and Ruffo 1989: 542. - Barnard and Karaman 1991: 528, 434 (key), 454 (key).

Type species.

Scopelocheirus crenatus Bate, 1857 by monotypy.

Included species.

Scopelocheirus includes three species: Scopelocheirus crenatus Bate, 1857; Scopelocheirus hopei A. Costa, 1851; Scopelocheirus polymedus Bellan-Santini, 1985.

Diagnosis.

Mandible lacinia mobilis a stemmed, distally expanded, irregularly cusped blade; palp article 2 broadened. Maxilla 2 inner plate slightly longer than outer; outer plate without long distally barbed slender setae. Gnathopod 1 coxa margins diverging distally. Pereopod 5 slightly wider than long; basis greatly expanded posteriorly.

Ecology.

Scopelocheirus species are frequently taken in baited traps. They are also reported in the literature as an associate of echinoids.

Discussion.

The taxonomic and nomenclatural history of the genus Scopelocheirus is highly complex. Della Valle (1893) placed all of the then described species of Scopelocheirus ( Callisoma Barthelemyi Costa, 1853; Scopelocheirus breviatus Bate, 1856; Scopelocheirus crenatus Bate, 1857; Anonyx Kroeyeri Bruzelius 1859; Callisoma Branickii Wrzesniowski, 1874; and Tryphosa serra Meinert 1890) in the synonymy of Scopelocheirus hopei (as Callisoma hopei ). Since then, Scopelocheirus crenatus and Scopelocheirus hopei have variously been treated as synonyms by some authors, e.g. Lincoln (1979), and as distinct species by others, e.g. Diviacco and Ruffo (1989). As these names have been recorded many times in the literature and appear commonplace in the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean, the result is a confused synonymy and a distributional record that is beyond the scope of the present study to untangle. In the following catalogue we treat these names separately, and detail what is recorded in the literature without making any assumption on the validity of the taxon concepts in most cases, which would require a much more detailed study of material.

Barnard and Karaman (1991) considered Bathycallisoma to be a junior synonym of Scopelocheirus , however our re-diagnosis of Scopelocheirus excludes Bathycallisoma from the Scopelocheirinae on the basis of its flap-like molar. We consider it to be a valid genus, placed in the Paracallisominae .