Maera irregularis, Myers, Alan A. & Nithyanandan, Manickam, 2016

Myers, Alan A. & Nithyanandan, Manickam, 2016, The Amphipoda of Sea City, Kuwait. — The Senticaudata (Crustacea), Zootaxa 4072 (4), pp. 401-429 : 424-427

Maera irregularis sp. nov.

( Fig. 19 )

Type material. Male holotype, 5.0 mm ( NHMUK 2015. 3237), Seagrass, Sea City, Kuwait, 20 October 2014, M. Nithyanandan; male paratype ( NHMUK 2015. 3238), same data as holotype.

Other material. 2 males ( NHMUK 2015. 3239–3240), soft benthos, Sea City, Kuwait, 24 October 2012, M. Nithyanandan.

Etymology. Named after the irregular formation of the male gnathopod 2 palm.

Description. Based on male holotype, 5.0 mm.

Head. Eye lobe rounded, eye large, ovate, with loose ommatidea. Antenna 1 peduncle elongate; article 2 longer than article 1; article 3 short, a little over one third length of article 2; accessory flagellum elongate with 5 articles; primary flagellum shorter than peduncle with 16 articles. Antenna 2 much shorter than antenna 1; peduncular article 5 shorter than article 4; flagellum subequal in length with peduncular article 5, with 6 articles.

Pereon. Gnathopod 1 coxa weakly produced forward; basis moderately stout; carpus and propodus subequal in length; carpus with notch on anterior margin; propodus palm evenly convex; dactylus fitting palm. Gnathopod 2 enormous, basis stout, excavate on anterior margin for reception of carpus and propodus when folded; carpus short, cup-shaped; propodus four times length of carpus, subrectangular, palm irregular, with two proximal humps separated by a v-shaped excavation, followed by a sloping palp delineated by a small spine, followed by a stout spine; dactylus stout, curved, fitting palm, with long setae on anterior margin. Pereopods 3–7 missing.

Pleon. Epimera 1–2 with small posterodistal spine; epimeron 3 with larger, triangular spine. Uropods 1–2, rami subequal, longer than peduncle. Uropod 3 large; peduncle short; rami twice length of peduncle, flattened, leaflike with numerous long setae marginally and distally. Telson almost completely divided, terminally notched, with three short robust setae on each side.

Female (sexually dimorphic characters). Unknown.

Remarks. M aera irregularis sp. nov. has a male gnathopod 2 superficially similar in the shape to that of Maera lucinae Krapp-Schickel, 2004 from the Gulf of Mexico. In that species, however, the shape of the palm is subtly different. Also in M. lucinae , antenna 1 and 2 are subequal in length, the peduncle of uropod 3 is much longer and the telson has very long robust setae. It shows some similarity to M. edwardsi Chevreux, 1927 from Cape Verde and the Canary Islands and M. hirondellei Chevreux, 1900 from the Azores, but in both those species the male gnathopod palm is a different shape and in M. edwardsi the epimera 1–2 lack spines.

Distribution. Kuwait.

Figures

FIGURE 19. Maera irregularis sp. nov., male, 5.0 mm, Sea City, Kuwait.