Belzebub faxoni (Borradaile, 1915) Vereshchaka & Olesen & Lunina, 2016

Vereshchaka, Alexander L., Olesen, Jørgen & Lunina, Anastasia A., 2016, A phylogeny-based revision of the family Luciferidae (Crustacea: Decapoda), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 178 (1), pp. 15-32 : 29

BELZEBUB FAXONI ( HANSEN, 1919) COMB. NOV.

( FIG. 8A – G )

Synonyms: Lucifer affinis Borradaile, 1915 ; Lucfer typus Faxon, 1878; Lucifer faxoni Borradaile, 1915 ; Lucifer Faxonii Hansen, 1919 .

Diagnosis: Anterior ventral process on sixth abdominal segment in male slightly shorter than posterior process; ventral process on telson of medium size, with swollen part directed downward and slightly backward; outer spine of uropodal exopod nearly reaching distal end of exopod in both sexes. Petasma: sheath without hook, subconical, with distal longitudinal rows of fine scales, platelike structures small, with entire margins; processus long, needle-like, finely setose along distal part, without a dense brush of long terminal setae. Atlantic species.

Remarks: Only males can be identified with certainty. This species is very similar, if not identical, to B. chacei (see remarks on B. chacei below). Both species differ from all other species of the genus and family in having subconical sheath enclosing spiniform processus ventralis bearing only sparse lateral setae in the distal part.

Etymology: Named after Dr Walter Faxon, an American ornithologist and carcinologist.

Geographical distribution ( Fig. 12): Western Atlantic from Long Island Sound to Rio de Janeiro; Gulf of Mexico; Caribbean Sea; Bermuda; eastern Atlantic off Senegal and Congo.

BELZEBUB CHACEI ( BOWMAN & MCCAIN, 1967)

Figures

Figure 8. Petasma of Belzebub faxoni (Borradaile, 1915) comb. nov.: ‘thumb’ (A, scanning electron micrograph), general structure (B), apical view of the petasma (C, scanning electron micrograph), lateral view of the sheath and the processus ventralis (D, scanning electron micrograph, E, scanning electron micrograph, F), distal part of the sheath with apical scales (G–I, scanning electron micrographs). Arrows point at same morphological structures.

Figure 12. Provisory macroscale geographical distribution of species of Lucifer and Belzebub. Based upon Dana Expedition data, Hansen (1919), Bowman & McCain (1967), Omori (1977), Lee et al. (1992), Perez-Farfante & Kensley (1997), Antony (2005), Ma, Xu & Zhou (2009), Xu (2010), and Teodoro et al. (2012).