Chiropsalmus maculatus Cornelius et al., 2005

Gershwin, Lisa-Ann, 2006, Comments on Chiropsalmus (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida): a preliminary revision of the Chiropsalmidae, with descriptions of two new genera and two new species, Zootaxa 1231 (1), pp. 1-42 : 16-17

Chiropsalmus maculatus Cornelius et al., 2005

Chiropsalmus maculatus Cornelius et al., 2005: 399–405 , figs. 1–6.

Chirodropus n. sp. A Gershwin, 2005: 122–123, pl. 4.8B, and throughout.

Material examined

Holotype: QMG316989: Just inside Outer Great Barrier Reef, NE Queensland, 43 km off mainland, 15° 59.050’S, 145° 49.294’E, 2 May 1997, within 5m of surface, coll. R. Hore.

Remarks

The revised diagnosis given herein for the genus Chiropsalmus precludes this species from this classification. Specifically, in comparison with the diagnosis presented above for Chiropsalmus , C. maculatus does not have exumbrellar warts; the pedalial canal bend is spike­shaped rather than rounded; gastric saccules are lacking; the lateral gonads are comprised of thousands of fine ribbon­like filaments rather than two leaf­like sheets; the tentacles are broad and flattened; and the mesenteries are robust. Furthermore, the species has well developed muscle bands occupying the majority of the subumbrellar wall; the phacellae are in large triangular fields along the lateral walls of the stomach rather than as linear organs along the stomach floor; and the ‘palm’ of the pedalium is greatly reduced; these characters are unknown in any other cubozoan.

While it is clear that the species is not a Chiropsalmus , it is less clear to exactly which genus the species does belong. Chirodropus Haeckel was said to have ‘grape­like swellings’ on the outer margin of the gonads, but in Chiropsalmus maculatus the gonads are replaced by fine threads. Chirodropus was further said to have feather­like gastric saccules bearing numerous filaments; Chiropsalmus maculatus does not have saccules of any shape, and no structures with filaments emanate from the subumbrellar cavity. While I am hesitant to erect a new genus for a species with only one known member, I believe that this is the most stable course of action for this species, i.e., I believe that including it within Chirodropus would make it unstable in the near future as Chirodropus becomes more accurately redescribed. I therefore propose the new genus Chirodectes for this species (Greek, chiro­, hand; ­dectes, biter), and include Chirodectes maculatus (Cornelius et al., 2005) comb. nov. in the family Chirodropidae , with the following diagnosis:

Genus Chirodectes , gen. nov.

Chirodropidae without gastric saccules; with large fields of well developed subumbrellar muscle bands spanning the perradial sides; with large fields of gastric cirri lining the interradial sides of the stomach wall; with filamentous gonads.