Protanaissus Sieg, 1983

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 : 193

Genus Protanaissus Sieg, 1983

Diagnosis (after Shiino, 1970 and Sieg, 1983b). Antennule of three articles; antenna of six articles. Labrum naked. Mandible molar process tapering to a point, without grinding surface; incisor process of right mandible triangular, notched, and serrated on anterior border; incisor process of left mandible triangular, serrated on anterior border, lacinia mobilis of similar shape. Labium simple. Maxillule apically curved inwards. Maxilliped bases fused; endites flared, short and broad, fused proximally, not fused distally; palp article 1 naked; article 2 with three distal/inner setae, longest of which exceeds tip of palp. Chela of cheliped rugose; fixed finger cutting-edge serrated. Pereopod 1 dactylus plus unguis as long as or longer than propodus, each of these longer than merus and carpus combined. Pereopods 2 and 3 carpus with slender ventrodistal spines; pereopods 4 to 6 with three spines and one seta on carpus, and short, stout dactylus armed with small unguis, propodi with dorsodistal seta/setae exceeding length of dactylus. Pleopods with subequal rami, endopod with subdistal inner plumose seta. Uropod biramous, both rami with two segments, exopod shorter than endopod, endopod proximal segment with conspicuous distal penicillate setae.

Type species. Typhlotanais longidactylus Shiino, 1970 by monotypy.

Remarks. Sieg (1983b) erected the genus Protanaissus for Typhlotanais longidactylus Shiino, 1970 , a species from the Antarctic, recognizing both that this species was not a typhlotanaid, and that it had affinities with the genus Tanaissus . As the diagnosis given by Sieg (ibid.) was very brief, this has been expanded above, based also on the original description of the type species by Shiino (1970). Particular characterizing features, especially as cited by Shiino (ibid.) are the elongate propodus and dactylus-plus-unguis of pereopod 1, and the wide maxilliped endites, while the longer inner seta on maxilliped palp article 2, the spination of the merus of pereopods 2 and 3, and the long distal propodal seta of pereopods 4 to 6 are further features distinguishing Protanaissus from Tanaissus .

Subsequent species attributed to this genus are discussed below, after the description of a new species of Protanaissus from the Bass Strait.