Aroui Chevreux, 1911

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 : 3

Aroui Chevreux, 1911

Aroui Chevreux, 1911: 169. - J.L. Barnard 1969: 328. - Barnard and Karaman 1991: 434 (key), 467. - Lowry and Stoddart 1989: 112. - Lowry and Stoddart 2003: 249.

Type species.

Aroui setosus Chevreux, 1911, by monotypy.

Included species.

Aroui includes four species: Aroui americana Lowry & Stoddart, 1997; Aroui hamatopodus Lowry & Stoddart, 1989; Aroui onagawae (Takekawa & Ishimaru, 2000), comb. n.; Aroui setosus Chevreux, 1911.

Diagnostic description.

Mandible lacinia mobilis a stemmed, distally expanded, irregularly cusped blade; palp article 2 broadened. Maxilla 2 inner plate longer than outer plate; outer plate with extremely long distally barbed slender setae. Gnathopod 1 coxa margins diverging distally. Pereopod 5 coxa slightly wider than long; basis greatly expanded posteriorly.

Distribution.

Western Atlantic. Mediterranean Sea. Japan. Australia.

Ecology.

Found in shallow warm seas. A scavenger, also found in dead spatangoid tests.

Discussion.

Previously, the setal fringe on the distal margins of the coxae from gnathopod 1 to pereopod 4 was considered to be a diagnostic character of the genus Aroui . Here we exclude that character from the diagnosis of the genus, as the setal fringe is absent in Aroui onagawae (Takekawa & Ishimaru, 2000), comb. n. Instead, we consider the unusual long, distally barbed setae on the outer plate of maxilla 2 to be an autapomorphy that distinguishes Aroui from all other genera in the Scopelocheiridae . See Aroui onagawae , below, for further discussion.