Bathytanais fragilis Larsen & Heard, 2001

Błażewicz-Paszkowycz, M. & Bamber, R. N., 2012, The Shallow-water Tanaidacea (Arthropoda: Malacostraca: Peracarida) of the Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia (other than the Tanaidae), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69, pp. 1-235 : 102

Bathytanais fragilis Larsen & Heard, 2001

Bathytanais fragilis Larsen & Heard, 2001 , 13–16, figs 5–7

(partim: deeper-water specimens only).

Material examined. 1 (J37854), holotype, Slope 21, 36º57.40'S 150º18.80'E, 220 m depth, muddy shell, 20 July 1986 . 3 (J58583), paratypes (“ other material ” in Larsen & Heard, 2001), same data as holotype. 1 (J39282), idiotype, Slope 32, 38º21.90'S 149º20.00'E, 1000 m depth, fine mud, 23 July 1986. All coll. G.C. Poore et al., WHOI suprabenthic sled, R. V. Franklin .

Remarks. In the light of other Bathytanais material found in the collections, the type-material of B. fragilis was re-examined, and some specimens (from shallower samples) were separated as belonging to a distinct species, described below. Significantly, we were able to confirm the shape and, in particular, the transparency of the ventral expansion on the second article of the antenna peduncle in B. fragilis , as well as other features of its morphology.

Bathytanais fragilis is recorded from the Eastern Bass Strait, from depths between 200 and 1000 m, mainly on muddy substrata.