Belzebub, 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 : 26

BELZEBUB GEN. NOV

Synonym: Lucifer Thompson, 1829 [partim].

Diagnosis: Posterior ventral process on sixth abdominal somite in male nearly straight, tapering, apically subacute. Eyestalks of moderate length, subcylindrical, eyes not dimorphic sexually, not reaching end of scaphocerite; stylocerite absent; scaphocerite with distal tooth overreaching end of blade; third maxilliped with entire dactyl, not sexually dimorphic; uropodal exopod with proximal segment not setose along outer margin. Petasma: pars externa transformed into a narrow, tapering sheath supported by strong chitinous rib; sheath armed with apical scales or ridges and with plate-like structures; processus ventralis spiniform, without apical pincer.

Type species: By present designation, B. hanseni ( Nobili, 1905) .

Species: Belzebub chacei (Bowman, 1967) ; B. faxoni ( Borradaile, 1915) ; B. hanseni ( Nobili, 1905) ; B. intermedius ( Hansen, 1919) ; B. peпicillifer ( Hansen, 1919) .

Remarks: Corresponds to the species group B of Lucifer ( Hansen, 1919) . The genus is easily distinguished from its sister genus Lucifer by mediumsized, subcylindrical eyestalks and eyes that are not sexually dimorphic. Males also differ in having a nearly straight posterior ventral process on the sixth abdominal somite and in the shape and armature of the sheath and processus ventralis of the petasma.

Etymology: From the Hebrew ‘ba’al’ meaning ‘lord’ and ‘z’bhubh’ meaning ‘fly’. We chose the Old English transliteration because it is shorter than the Greek ‘beelzeboub’. ‘Belzebub’ is sometimes referred to as another name for the devil, so by this name we allude to the close relationship between this genus and Lucifer , another wellknown synonym of the word ‘devil’ (but note that Lucifer actually was intended to mean ‘light-bearer’ in this context).

Distribution: Neritic genus, panoceanic distribution.