Persianorchestia, Momtazi, Farzaneh, Lowry, Jim & Hekmatara, Maryam, 2017

Momtazi, Farzaneh, Lowry, Jim & Hekmatara, Maryam, 2017, Persianorchestia, a new talitrid genus (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Talitridae) from Gulf of Oman, Iran, Zootaxa 4238 (1), pp. 119-126 : 120

Persianorchestia gen. nov.

Type species. Persianorchestia nirvana sp. nov., original designation.

Included species. Persianorchestia includes 1 species: P. nirvana sp. nov.

Ecological type. Sand-hoppers

Etymology. The genus is named for its geographic locality plus the stem, Orchestia .

Diagnosis (based on adult male). Head eye large (greater than 1/3 head length). Antenna 1 short, not longer that peduncular article 4 of antenna 2. Antenna 2 peduncular articles slender, article 3 without plate or process ventrally; final article large, cone-shaped virgula divina present. Mandible left lacinia mobilis 5-cuspidate. Maxilliped palp article 2 distomedial lobe well developed; article 4 reduced, button-shaped. Gnathopod 1 parachelate or simple; posterior margin of carpus and propodus each with lobe covered in palmate setae; propodus palm angle acute. Gnathopod 2 subchelate; propodus palm without protuberance near dactylar hinge; dactylus not modified distally, blunt, shorter than propodus. Pereopods 3–7 cuspidactylate. Pereopod 4 dactylus similar to that of pereopod 3 (but with mid-ventral dome and large robust seta). Pereopod 5 dactylus long, slender. Pereopods 6–7 slender, not sexually dimorphic. Pleonite 1–3 without dorsal spines. Pleopods all well developed. Epimera 1–3 without slits just above ventral margins. Uropod 1 rami with apical spear-shaped setae; outer ramus without marginal robust setae; inner ramus with marginal robust setae in one row. Uropod 2 rami with apical spear-shaped setae; outer and inner rami with marginal robust setae in one row. Uropod 3 ramus longer than or subequal in length to peduncle. Telson broader than long, tapering distally, apically incised, with 5–6 marginal and apical robust setae per lobe.

Remarks. Persianorchestia is similar to Pseudorchestoidea Bousfield, 1982 , in the sense of Lowry and Bopiah (2012). Both genera have large eyes covering much of the head, palmate lobes on the carpus and merus of gnathopod 1, uropod 1 without marginal robust setae on the outer ramus and bearing apical spear-shaped setae on the rami of uropods 1–2, but Persianorchestia has a slender dactylus on pereopod 5 (inflated in Pseudorchestoidea ), a smooth posterior margin on the propodus palm of male gnathopod 2 (weak to strong protuberance near dactylar hinge in Pseudorchestoidea ) and on the dactylus (with posteroproximal protuberance in Pseudorchestoidea ).

Geographically Pseudorchestoidea occurs on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America.