MYSIDA

Pesce, Giuseppe L. & Iliffe, Thomas M., 2002, New records of cave-dwelling mysids from the Bahamas and Mexico with description of Palaumysis bahamensis n. sp. (Crustacea: Mysidacea), Journal of Natural History 36 (3), pp. 265-278 : 266-268

Suborder MYSIDA Family LEPIDOMYSIDAE Clarke, 1961 Spelaeomysis quinterensi s ( Villalobos, 1951) (®gures 1± 4)

Material examined. Tamaulipas, Mexico: cave spring on the Rio Guayalejo near Juamave; 15 March 1998; one mature female (length 7.5 mm) collected with vial from water column in 10 m depth by T. M. IliOEe .

Taxonomic notes. The single specimen we examined from a cave spring on the Rio Guayalejo is identical to S. quinterensis described and illustrated by Villalobos (1951) from the type-locality (Quintero cave, Tamaulipas, Mexico), as well as by Bowman (1973, 1982) and Reddell (1981), also from Mexico, diOEering only by the following minor characteristics:

(1) Antennal scale more rounded and slightly wider as compared to Villalobos’ description and ®gures; antennal ¯agellum with more and longer segments (®gure 2).

(2) Sixteen to 18 long spines on the medial lobe of uropod (®gure 4) (vs 20 or more, and shorter spines both in Villalobos’ and Bowman’s ®gures).

(3) Telson armed with 33 spines (®gure 1) (vs 25 and 27 spines in Villalobos’ and Bowman’s ®gures, respectively); moreover in the specimen from Guayalejo spring, the medial apical spine is ¯anked by two slender plumose setae (vs the same spines ®gured as naked in the original and following descriptions and ®gures). However, in this last regard, we suppose that the re-examination of typical material could reveal the presence of the same plumose setae also in S. quinterensis , since these setae have been reported and ®gured in other species of the genus ( S. bottazzi , S. longipes ) and probably they could be present, but overlooked, also in the remaining ones.

(4) Pleopod 2 (®gure 3) slightly shorter and less setulose as compared to Villalobos’ ®gures.

The peculiar telson armature could justify recognition of the Guayalejo spring specimen as a distinct species or subspecies, but until enough material from this locality, as well as from the type-locality, becomes available to assess adequately the variability of S. quinterensi s, we consider the Guayalejo spring and the Villalobos’ material to be conspeci®c.

Habitat. This spring is located on the south bank of the Rio Guayalejo as it passes through a large canyon crossing the Sierra Madre Oriental. The spring pool is located about 50 m inland from the river bank and consists of a shallow basin about 5 m in diameter, beneath a rock ledge. Underwater, a cave trends away from the river for about 100 m before coming back to the surface in a small air-®lled chamber with possible dry cave passages leading oOE. Maximum depth in the underwater cave was 15 m. The stygobitic cirolanid Speocirolana disparicorni s Botosaneanu and IliOEe, 1999 and the amphipod Seborgia near hershleri (det. J. R. Holsinger, 13 April 1999) were also collected from the cave.

Remarks. The genus Spelaeomysis presently includes nine named species, seven from various groundwater habitats (anchialine caves, springs and wells) in south Italy, Zanzibar, Mexico and Cuba, one from prawn culture ®elds in India, and another one from crab burrows in Colombia. Recently, GarcõÂa-Garza et al. (1996) presented a key to the known species in the genus, including only seven species and omitting S. bottazzii Caroli, 1924 and S. cochinensis Panampunnayil and Viswakumar, 1991 . Moreover, in the same paper, the authors misspelled the name of S. servatus with S. serratus .

Three species are presently known from subterranean waters in Mexico: Spelaeomysis quinterensis ( Villalobos, 1951) [cave waters, Tamaulipas] Spelaeomysis olivae Bowman, 1973 [cave waters, Oaxaca] Spelaeomysis villalobosi GarcõÂa-Garza, Rodriguez-Almaraz and Bowman, 1996 [phreatic and cave waters, Nuevo LeoÂn]

The remaining species come from the following localities: Spelaeomysis bottazzii Caroli, 1924 [anchialine cave and phreatic waters; south Italy] Spelaeomysis servatus (Fage, 1924) [cave waters; Kenya, Zanzibar, Aldabra] Spelaeomysis longipes (Pillai and Mariamma, 1963) [phreatic waters, India] Spelaeomysis nuniezi Bacescu and Orghidan, 1971 [cave waters, Cuba] Spelaeomysis cardisomae Bowman, 1973 [cave waters, crab burrows; Columbia, San Andres] Spelaeomysis cochinensis Panampunnayil and Viswakumar, 1991 [prawn culture ®eld; India]