Callipallene novaezealandiae (Thomson, 1884)

Arango, Claudia P., 2003, Sea spiders (Pycnogonida, Arthropoda) from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: new species, new records and ecological annotations, Journal of Natural History 37 (22), pp. 2723-2772 : 2743

Callipallene novaezealandiae (Thomson, 1884)

Pallene novae-zealandiae Thomson, 1884: 246–247 , pl. 14, figures 1–4.

Callipallene brevirostris ssp. novae-zealandiae: Stock, 1954: 48–50 , figure 21.

Callipallene novaezealandiae: Child, 1983: 277 (literature), 1988b: 21; 1991: 145; 1996b: 554; 1996a: 534; 1998b: 46; Müller, 1990: 106; Stock, 1994: 48; Bamber, 1998: 28.

Material examined. Rib Reef, reef slope, 9 m, in Galaxaura sp. and rubble washings, 26 November 1998, one juvenile. Pandora Reef, found in rubble, 8 m, 7 March 2000, one W; 19 April 2000, one W with eggs, one W. Turtle Bay, in C. prolifera , 14 May 1999, one X. Rowes Bay, in C. prolifera , 1 June 2000, four W with eggs. Lucinda, in piling scrapings from the jetty, 1 December 1999, one W with eggs (coll. Cruz).

Description. Trunk length 1.1, width 0.42 mm, fully segmented, neck long, constricted, body elongated; crurigers apart by more than their own diameter but less than twice the diameter; ocular tubercle with pointing tip; abdomen erect, short; proboscis with distal projections. Chelifores robust, scape one-segmented, inflated palm, scape and palm subequal in length, both with setae, movable finger as long as the palm, both fingers with serrate margins. Fifth segment of ovigers with apophysis in the males, typical of genus, with a row of four setae, formula: 6:6:6: 7 in females, 5:5:5: 5 in males. Femur longest segment of legs, tibiae with long setae, other segments glabrous, propodus slender, without heel, long setae dorsally, three to four heel spines, five sole spines; long main claw, auxiliaries three-quarters of the main claw length.

Distribution. It had been found before in South Australia (Stock, 1954), and there is one unreported record of C. novaezealandiae from New Year Island in the Northern Territory (records of the Australian Museum [AM]). This is a widely distributed Indo-Pacific species taken from East Africa to Japan in 2–247 m (occurs mostly in shallow waters), so it can be expected to have a wide Australian distribution.

Remarks. Callipallene is a difficult genus to work with considering the high intraspecific variation of the few characters known to differentiate species. Length of the neck and shape of the ocular tubercle seem to change with age and sex. The number of spines in the ovigers also appears to be variable at least within this species. The specimens reported agree for most part with the description and figures in Stock (1954), but show fewer denticulate spines in the ovigers, as also noted by Child for his specimens collected at the Marshall Islands (Child, 1982b). Callipallene novaezealandiae is recognized by monomorphic denticulate spines on the ovigers, short chelifores fingers and usually four heel spines. However, these characters might change or be found in closely related species. This is one of the genera in urgent need of taxonomic revision.