Bathyamaryllis Pirlot, 1933

Lowry, J. K. & Stoddart, H. E., 2002, The Amaryllididae of Australia (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Lysianassoidea), Records of the Australian Museum 54, pp. 129-214 : 199-200

Bathyamaryllis Pirlot

Bathyamaryllis Pirlot, 1933: 123 .–K.H. Barnard, 1940: 441.–J.L. Barnard, 1969: 328.–Barnard & Karaman, 1991: 470.

Diagnosis. Head with rostrum anteriorly rounded or truncated; eye reniform or oval. Antenna 1 peduncular article 1 ball-shaped proximally; peduncular article 2 medium length or long; callynophore absent in female, present in male. Antenna 2 flagellum about as long as that of antenna 1 in female, longer than body in male [where known]. Mandible palp article 3 with proximal A3-seta in male [where known], without proximal A3-seta in female. Pereopod 4 coxa with anterior and posterior margins subparallel or with anterior margin slightly obtuse, posterior margin straight. Uropod 3 rami with plumose setae in male [where known], without plumose setae in female; outer ramus 1-articulate or 2-articulate.

Type species. Bathyamaryllis perezii Pirlot, 1933 , by original designation.

Species composition. Bathyamaryllis contains 5 species: B. haswelli (Stebbing, 1888) , B. kapala n.sp., B. ouvea Lowry & Stoddart, 1994 , B. perezii Pirlot, 1933 and B. pulchellus ( Bonnier, 1896) .

Remarks. Within the vijayiine group Devo and Bathyamaryllis are probably sister taxa. Both have the unusual proximal ballshaped peduncular article 1 on antenna 1.

The deepwater genera Bathyamaryllis and Devo are the most widespread amaryllidid genera with species in the Atlantic and the Indo-West Pacific. The Indo-West Pacific species of Bathyamaryllis ( B. kapala , B. ouvea and B. perezii ) all have a moderately constricted inner ramus on uropod 2 and a 2-articulate outer ramus on uropod 3; the two North Atlantic species ( B. haswelli and B. pulchellus ) have only a slightly constricted inner ramus on uropod 2 and a 1-articulate uropod 3. These differences suggest two distinct species groups within the genus.

Mature males of Bathyamaryllis species are not well known. Males have never been recorded for B. haswelli or B. perezii . The only male known of our new species B. kapala is immature. Stephensen (1923: 44) reported a male of B. pulchellus in which antenna 2 was “twice as long as antenna 1”, but had no calceoli, and setae were present on article 2 of the mandibular palp. The 7.7 mm male of B. ouvea illustrated in Lowry & Stoddart (1994, fig. 7), is immature. The 8 mm male of their fig. 10 had both antennae 2 broken; antenna 1 and the remaining articles of antenna 2 had no calceoli; it did have a well-developed callynophore on antenna 1, brush setae on the peduncle of antenna 2, numerous setae on articles 2 and 3 of the mandibular palp, a brush of setae on merus and carpus of pereopods 3 and 4, and plumose setae on the rami of uropod 3.

Distribution. Western and eastern North Atlantic Ocean, Indonesia, eastern Australia and western South Pacific Ocean; 120–1919 m depth (see Fig. 66).