Iphinoe armata Ledoyer, 1965

Mazziotti, Cristina & Lezzi, Marco, 2020, The cumacean genus Iphinoe (Crustacea: Peracarida) from Italian waters and I. daphne n. sp. from the northwestern Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean, Zootaxa 4766 (2), pp. 331-357 : 337

Iphinoe armata Ledoyer, 1965

Iphinoe armata Ledoyer, 1965: 256–257 , 268, 270, 271, pl. 2 fig. 1 A B, pl. 6 fig. 1, pl. 10 fig 1, pl. 14 fig. 1); Ledoyer 1968: 175 (S. France); Massé 1971 (Bandol, rare); Massé 1972a: 314 –315 (2–29 expl./m 2 Golfe de Fos, S. France); Massé 1972: 213 (53 expl./m 2, 2– 9 m; Provence-France).

Material examined. 6 ovigerous females, st. 5; 10 adult males, 8 preparatory males, 7 ovigerous females, 7 subadulte females, st. 11; 8 adult males, 3 preparatory males, 10 ovigerous females, st. 28; 3 adult males, 4 ovigerous females, 3 preparatory females, st. 30; 9 adult males, 10 ovigerous females, st. 31; 2 ovigerous females, st. 33; 2 adult males, 2 preparatory males, 5 ovigerous females, 2 subadult females, st. 35; 3 adult males, 4 ovigerous females, st. 36; 2 adult males, 2 preparatory males, st. 37; 2 ovigerous females, st. 41; 1 adult male, 2 ovigerous females, st. 42; 1 adult male, 1 preparatory male, 1 subadult female, st. 43; 3 adult males, 2 ovigerous females, st. 44; 1 adult male, 3 ovigerous females, st. 45.

Remarks. Iphinoe armata belongs to the so-called “ I. trispinosa group” ( Ledoyer 1965). The congeneric species belonging to this group have one aesthetasc on antenna 1 and two perianal setae, and in males the first antenna is as long as the whole body. The main differences compared to the males of the other species within the trispinosa group is the presence of an armed carina, plumose setae on the second pereopod merus and larger distal spines in the first joint of the uropod endopod. The sternal process is present with 6/8 digits. The examined males presented 9 plumose setae on their exopod, instead of 12 as mentioned by Ledoyer (1965). Females are difficult to distinguish from other congenerics, although the seta formula is peculiar (12;4+12). All the examined individuals had a CL/CD ratio of around 2 ± 0.16, as reported by Ledoyer (1965) ( Table 4 ).

Distribution and ecology. The species has been recorded in the north-western Mediterranean ( Ledoyer 1965, 1968, Massé 1972, Corbera & Cardell 1995, Corbera et al. 2013) and in the Levantine Sea ( Corbera & Galil 2016). Along the Italian coast, I. armata was known from areas 1 and 3 of the Bianchi (2004) classification. We report the presence for areas 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 and we confirm area 3 ( Table 3 ).

The type species was described from southern France (Ciotat, Bandol) on fine sand at 5–16 m deep on the biocenosis of coastal terrigenous muds ( Ledoyer 1965). Iphinoe armata was also dominant in sandy bottoms from 5 to 10 m deep along the Mediterranean Spanish coast ( Corbera & Cardell 1995). Our data ( Table 1 ) show the presence of I. armata in several infralittoral biocenosis (SFBC and SFS-muddy, VTC, SCGF), at a depth ranging between 4 and 27 meters. Along the Italian coast it prefers fine sandy sediments, even though the presence of mud does not hinder its presence. In light of these considerations, I. armata is a species that inhabits a variety of sandy and muddy sediments in the infralittoral coastal zones.