Neoleptastacus chilensis, Sak & Karaytuğ & Huys, 2024

Sak, Serdar, Karaytuğ, Süphan & Huys, Rony, 2024, Review of Neoleptastacus Nicholls, 1945 (Harpacticoida, Arenopontiidae), including an updated key to species and proposal of Phreatipontia gen. nov., Zootaxa 5525 (1), pp. 1-66 : 31

Neoleptastacus chilensis sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ AA740537-8778-4985-A099-91E5416169BE

Arenopontia? gussoae Cottarelli, 1973a sensu Mielke (1987) [partim: “normal form”]

Original description. Mielke (1987 —as Arenopontia? gussoae ): 330–334; Figs 10–12 .

Type locality. Chile, Antofagasta Region, Antofagasta Province, 25 km north of Antofagasta, La Rinconada (few km north of La Portada); fine grey-brown sandy beach.

Body length. 320–380 μm (♀), 270–360 μm (♂) (Antofagasta type population); 340–410 μm (♀), 320–390 μm (♂) (Coquimbo population); 290–340 μm (♀), 270–300 μm (♂) (Iquique, Playa Cavancha population); 350–410 μm (♀), 340–400 μm (♂) (Iquique, Playa Brava population) [ Mielke 1987].

Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the geographical place of collection (in this case the country of origin) of the name-bearing type.

Remarks. Mielke (1987) reported several populations of Arenopontia? gussoae from northern Chile with most of them belonging to the “normal form”. Some specimens from Coquimbo and Iquique that co-occurred with this form were attributed to a “second form” but were not formally described (see below). The normal form can be differentiated from the type population of N. gussoae by (1) the shorter P1 endopod (being as long as the exopod vs distinctly longer), (2) the longer and broader female P5 (length/maximum width ratio 2.4 vs 2.0), (3) the shorter terminal spinous process on the caudal ramus (35% of ramus length vs 45%), and (4) the presence of a conspicuous medial spur near the origin of caudal ramus seta VII. The combination of these characters is regarded here as sufficient evidence to attribute distinct specific status to the normal form. It differs from the “second form” in rostrum shape, spinular ornamentation of the inner spinous process of P5, absence of the medial spur on the caudal ramus, and position of caudal ramus seta III.

The female specimen illustrated by Mielke (1987: Figs 10 , 11A–D , 12 ) and deposited in the Zoologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Göttingen is here designated as the holotype of N. chilensis sp. nov. in accordance with ICZN Arts 16.4, 72.5.6 and 73.1.4 . The species can be differentiated by the characters listed above (ICZN Art. 13.1). Mielke (1987) collected the species from four localities in northern Chile but explicitly indicated that his illustrations were based on specimens from La Rinconada beach which consequently becomes the type locality (ICZN Art. 76.1).

Figures

FIGURE 10. Neoleptastacus supersetosus sp. nov.: (A) urosome (♀), ventral [arrow indicating copulatory pore]; (B) urosome (♂), ventral.

FIGURE 11. Neoleptastacus supersetosus sp. nov.: (A) habitus (♂), lateral; (B) rostrum and cephalothorax (♀), dorsal; (C) anal somite and caudal rami (♀), dorsal; (D) anal somite and left caudal ramus (♀), lateral; (E) antennule (♀), dorsal; (F) antennule (♂), dorsal.

FIGURE 12. Phreatipontia phreatica (Cottarelli, Bruno & Venanzetti, 1994) comb. nov. (♀): (A) habitus, lateral; (B) habitus, dorsal; (C) anal somite and caudal rami, dorsal [arrow indicating modified seta IV]: (D) anal somite and right caudal ramus, lateral.