Paracaprella tenuis ( Mayer 1903 )

Paz-Ríos, Carlos E., Guerra-García, José M. & Ardisson, Pedro-Luis, 2014, REVIEW ARTICLE Caprellids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from the Gulf of Mexico, with observations on Deutella mayeri, redescription of Metaprotella hummelincki, a taxonomic key and zoogeographical comments, Journal of Natural History 48 (41 - 42), pp. 2517-2578 : 2553-2555

Paracaprella tenuis ( Mayer 1903)

( Figure 18 )

Paracaprella tenuis Mayer, 1903: 68 , pl. 2, figs 34, 35, pl. 7, figs 51, 58. McCain, 1968: 86–89, figs 43, 44. McCain and Steinberg, 1970: 59. Laubitz, 1972: 67–68, pl. 18. Arimoto, 1976: 55–58, figs 24, 25. Guerra-García, 2002b: 225– 227, figs 9–12. Ortiz et al., 2002, fig. 38. Foster, Thomas, et al., 2004: 162, 166–167, fig. 6.

Deutella abracadabra Steinberg and Dougherty, 1957: 277–279 , figs 14, 17, 18, 20, 27.

Material examined

Station 19, 21 males, 66 females (35 ovigerous), 19 juveniles (one male and one female from this station used for figures), CYMX-25- CY .

Type locality

Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Distribution

Northwestern Atlantic; Gulf of Mexico; Venezuela; Tanzania; Japan ( Takeuchi 1999; Díaz and Martín 2001; Guerra-García 2002b).

Records in the Gulf of Mexico

MEX: Laguna Madre ( Barba and Sánchez 2005); Rio Lagartos (present study). USA: Ship Island; Alligator Harbor ( Steinberg and Dougherty 1957); Port Isabel; Corpus Christi; Galveston Bay; Pensacola Bay; Tampa Bay ( McCain 1968); Apalachicola Bay ( Sheridan 1979); Choctawhatchee Bay ( Martin and Bortone 1997); Biloxi Bay ( Pederson and Peterson 2002); St Andrew Bay; St Joseph Bay (Foster, Thomas, et al. 2004); Aransas Bay ( Ahrens and Grubbs 2012).

Habitat

Paracaprella tenuis has been collected from various red and brown algae, seagrasses, sponges, hydroids, alcyonarians, bryozoans and from hydroids attached to the carapace of the spider crab Libinia sp. ( McCain 1968) . It has also been found in artificial reefs ( Martin and Bortone 1997) and on the carapace of the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta ( Caine 1986) . Detritus is the dominant stomach content in this species ( Caine 1974). Caine (1998) reported a mutualistic relationship between P. tenuis and the hydrozoan Bougainvillia rugosa , where the caprellids defended the

hydroid’ s tentacles in order to obtain a substratum to which they could cling and graze on diatoms. The depth range reported is <1–11 m ( LeCroy et al. 2009).

Remarks

Recently Guerra-García (2002b) redescribed this species from specimens collected from Syringodium sp. , Fungia sp. and other corals from Tanzanian coast but did not include the records of Arimoto (1976) cited by Takeuchi (1999) for Japanese waters. Several morphological differences in the material from Tanzania could indicate that the Tanzanian specimens could belong to an undescribed species of Paracaprella , close to P. tenuis .

Figures

Figure 18. Paracaprella tenuis Mayer, 1903. Yucatan, Mexico; CYMX-25-CY. Scale bar: 1 mm.