Sandro Karaman & Barnard, 1979

Daneliya, Mikhail E., 2011, A new species of Sandro Karaman & Barnard (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Austroniphargus family group) from South-East Madagascar, Zootaxa 2929, pp. 37-50 : 39

Sandro Karaman & Barnard, 1979

Sandro Karaman & Barnard, 1979: 141 ; Barnard & Barnard, 1983: 446.

Type species. Austroniphargus starmuehlneri Ruffo, 1960 ; designated by Karaman & Barnard (1979).

Revised diagnosis. Body smooth, urosomites coalesced. Anterior margin of head smoothly rounded (rostrum reduced to a very low convexity). Lateral cephalic lobes projecting beyond anterior margin of head; upper angle smoothly rounded, lower angle straight. Eyes absent. Telson elongate, narrow, cleft about three fourths, lobes with numerous distal spine-setae. Antennae elongate, rather thin. Peduncle of antenna 1 about as wide as peduncle of antenna 2; length ratio of peduncle articles 1.5/1.4/1; accessory flagellum 1-articulate. Antenna 2 shorter than antenna 1, with swollen article 1 of peduncle. Mandibular palp article 3 linear, fusiform. Inner lobes of labium small, fleshy, well marked. Inner plate of maxilla 1 elongate-triangular; outer plate with 7 medially serrate spinesetae; palps asymmetric; left narrow, with many distal robust setae, right stouter with distal short teeth-like spinesetae and longer narrow distolateral spine-seta. Plates of maxilla 2 narrow; inner plate without facial row of setae. Plates of maxilliped of medium size. Maxilliped propodus with posterodistal lobe, covered by dense microsetae. All coxae elongate, particularly coxa 1−4; coxa 4 lobate posteriorly. Gnathopods of medium size; gnathopod 2 barely larger than gnathopod 1; merus and carpus with large posterior lobe, covered by numerous microsetae; propodus slightly longer than carpus, trapezoidal, expanding apically; palm with setae and posterior defining spinesetae. Pereopods 3-4 alike, of medium length. Pereopods 5−7 alike, of medium length; basis weakly expanded, weakly lobate, posterior margin convex, with rare short setae, anterior margin with spine-setae. Coxal gills (5 pairs) on mesosomites 3−7, broadly ovate, pedicles absent. Oostegites 4 pairs: present on thoracic segments 3−6. Pleopods biramous; peduncles normal, cylindrical, about twice as long as wide; both rami multiarticulate, richly setose. Urosomite 1 with 1 ventrofacial distal spine-seta. Peduncle of uropod 1 without ventrofacial setae. Rami of uropods 1−2 extending subequally, posteriorly and distally with spine-setae. Uropod 3 considerably exceeding uropod 1, parviramous; peduncle short, with posterodistal lobe in males; inner ramus scale-like, outer elongate with posterior spine-setae, anterior bunches of setae and short distal article.

Remarks. From the original and later updated diagnoses ( Karaman & Barnard 1979; Barnard & Barnard 1983) I excluded the setation of telson, lengths of mandibular palp articles and shape of gnathopod palm, because they are rather different for S. starmuhlneri and S. straussi sp. n. It was also necessary to mention that posterodistal lobe of uropod 3 is present only in males. The description of head, antennae, propodus of maxilliped and oostegites is based on S. straussi sp. n. only.

Closely allied to Austroniphargus , but differing by deeper telson cleft (about 40 percent of telson length in Austroniphargus ), presence of inner lobes on the labium, shorter accessory flagellum of antenna 1 (2-articulate in Austroniphargus ), longer coxae, lobed coxa 4 and normally developed pleopods (rudimentary 1-articulate endopod in Austroniphargus ).

The genus includes 2 species: S. starmuehlneri ( Ruffo, 1960) and S. straussi sp. n.