Gejavis, Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber, 2012

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 : 206

Genus Gejavis gen. nov.

Diagnosis of female. Similar to Akanthophoreus , uropods biramous, endopod and exopod two-segmented; molar process tapering with several terminal spines; maxillule endite with nine distal spines; maxilliped basis naked; maxilliped palp article 2 with three inner plumose setae, outer margin naked, article 3 with three plumose and one simple inner setae; cheliped carpus without ventral shield but with rugose dorsla margin, propodus with coarse rugosity; pereopod 1 merus ventrodistally with one seta and one slender spine, carpus with dorsodistal seta, ventrodistally naked; dactyli without groove or small spines; pereopods 4 to 6, unguis of anterior pereopods much longer than dactylus; pereopods 4 to 6, carpus with three spines and one seta. Pleonites with long setae.

Type species. Gejavis corsotos sp. nov. by monotypy.

Etymology. Named cryptically after Dr Graham Gird (G J being his initials, and avis being Latin for a bird) for his invaluable contributions to tanaidacean taxonomy and phylogeny (female).

Remarks. The new species described below shows close affinities to Akanthophoreus Sieg, 1986 (see Bird, 2007, for diagnosis and discussion of that genus) and Chauliopleona Dojiri and Sieg, 1997 , but is distinguished in the comparatively reduced spination of the merus and carpus of pereopod 1, in the simpler conformation of the dactyli of all pereopods, in having the uropod exopod longer than the proximal endopod segment, in the absence of a seta on the maxilliped basis and in the maxilliped palp setation. The new genus differs from Paraleptognathia Kudinova-Pasternak, 1981 in that the cheliped is rugose trather than setulose, and is without a ventrodistal carpal shield, pereopod 1 is without the complex spinulation of that genus, and again the conformation of the pereopod dactyli and the uropod rami are distinct. There remain some species currently assigned to Leptognathia Sars, 1882 with two-segmented uropod exopods which will presumably be reallocated once the confounded classification of this group of tanaidaceans is resolved better ( Leptognathia sensu stricto is currently regarded as having a one-segmented uropod exopod, e.g. Larsen & Shimomura, 2007a); again, Gejavis gen. nov. is largely distinguished from those species by its pereopod 1 spination and uropod exopod conformation.

The rugosity of the cheliped in the present genus is also distinct from those of other akanthophoreids, although it is not possible at this stage to say whether this feature is a generic or specific characteristic.

Błażewicz-Paszkowycz and Bamber (2011) elevated Sieg’s (1986a) subfamily Akanthophoreinae to familial rank to accommodate the genus Akanthophoreus (at least), as, despite this genus having its own higher taxon, being the type genus of that subfamily, it had been left unclassified (“Family incertae sedis ”) in a number of recent phylogenetic and taxonomic works on the genus (e.g. Larsen & Wilson, 2002; Bird, 2007). The new genus described here is clearly close to Akanthophoreus , and so is placed within the same Family.