Parelasmopus Stebbing, 1888

Lowry, J. K. & Hughes, L. E., 2009, Maeridae, the Elasmopus group *, Zootaxa 2260 (1), pp. 643-702 : 690-691

Parelasmopus Stebbing, 1888

Parelasmopus Stebbing, 1888: 1029 . — Stebbing, 1906: 417. —J.L. Barnard, 1972a: 253 — Barnard & Barnard, 1983: 629, fig. 10. — Lowry & Stoddart, 2003: 185 (catalogue).

Type species. Megamoera suensis Haswell, 1879b , here selected (replacing Gammarus suluensis Dana, 1852 ).

Included species. Parelasmopus includes 10 species: P. albidus ( Dana, 1852) ; P. echo J.L. Barnard, 1972a ; P. dancaui Ortiz & Lalana, 1997 ; P. mallacootaformis Ledoyer, 1984 ; P. setiger Chevreux, 1901 ; P. sowpigensis Lowry & Springthorpe, 2005 ; P. suensis ( Haswell, 1879b) ; P. suluensis ( Dana, 1852) ; P. ya J.L. Barnard, 1972a; P. zelei Ledoyer, 1983 .

Remarks. Stebbing (1888) based the genus Parelasmopus on Gammarus suluensis Dana, 1852 . According to J.L. Barnard (1972a), Stebbing (1888) misidentified his material. Stebbing based his concept of Parelasmopus on a species with a pair of dorsal spines on pereonite 7, but pereonite 7 is smooth in P. suluensis . At that time Barnard could not identify the species, but comparing Stebbing’s (1888) illustrations with Berents’ (1983) illustrations of the lectotype of P. suensis , it is clear that Stebbing had P. suensis . In reality Stebbing based his description of Parelasmopus on P. suensis , using material from Challenger station 186, near Thursday Island, Torres Strait (10º30’S 142º18’E). According to ICZN (4 th edition, 1999) Article 70.3.1, this species may be selected as the type species, replacing Parelasmopus suluensis ( Dana, 1852) , originally chosen by Stebbing (1888).