Deutella incerta (Mayer, 1903)

GUERRA-GARCÍA, J. M., 2003, Revision of the genus Deutella (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Caprellidea) with description of a new species, redescription of Deutella venenosa Mayer, 1890 and a key to the species of Deutella, Journal of Natural History 37 (9), pp. 1059-1084 : 1062

Deutella incerta (Mayer, 1903)

(figure 3)

Protellopsis stebbingii Kunkel, 1910: 111–113 , figure 43.

Deutella incerta ; Steinberg and Dougherty, 1957: 281, 285–286; Gable and Lazo-Wasem, 1987: 635–636, figure 4.

Luconacia incerta ; Mayer, 1903: 49–50, pl. 2, figures 11–14; pl. 6, figures 73–75; pl. 9, figures 21, 40, 57; McCain, 1968: 53–54, 68–72, figures 33–35; McCain and Steinberg, 1970: 53.

Material examined. One male, one female (types), USNM 026001 , three females (paratypes), USNM 123527 , 213– 234 m depth, 10 February 1934 ; one male, one female (non-types), USNM 42667 , Gulf of Mexico .

Distribution. Type locality: off Mobile Bay, Alabama, 29 ° 24 ∞ N, 88 ° 04W. Other localities: Bermuda, east coast of North America from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to Straits of Florida; Gulf of Mexico from Cedar Keys, Florida to Yucatan; Virgin Islands; Barbuda; Barbados; Isla de Margarita, Aruba.

Ecology. This species has been collected on mangrove roots, Sargassum , Thalassia , sponges, hydroids, alcyonarians, ascidians and it has occasionally been taken in plankton tows.

Remarks. Deutella incerta is widely distributed in the temperate and tropical areas of the western North Atlantic (McCain, 1968) and seems to be one of the most commonly encountered caprellids in Bermuda (Gable and Lazo-Wasem, 1987). Steinberg and Dougherty (1957) synonymized Luconacia of Mayer (1903) with Deutella , transferring Luconacia incerta Mayer, 1903 to the genus Deutella . McCain (1968) re-established Luconacia on the basis of the following differences: apical setae are present on the terminal article of the maxilliped palp and a projection is present on the penultimate article in Deutella , while both are lacking in Luconacia incerta ; the terminal article of the mandibular palp in Deutella has no knobs and in Luconacia incerta there is a knob; in Deutella the tip of the male abdominal appendage is without papillae and fringed or not fringed, and in Luconacia incerta both papillae and fringes are present; the female abdomen in Deutella is lobed and in Luconacia incerta it is not; pereopod 5 is inserted posteriorly on pereonite 5 in Deutella , but in Luconacia incerta at mid-length. The discovery of Deutella aspiducha by Gable and Lazo-Wasem (1987) provided these authors with a transitional form that allowed them to re-unite Deutella and Luconacia . Curiously, Gable and Lazo-Wasem (1987) overlooked the existence of the species Luconacia vemae McCain and Gray, 1971 . This species had been described in a revision of the Caprellidea from the Antarctic and Subantarctic by McCain and Gray (1971). However, the differences between Luconacia vemae and Deutella incerta further support the combination of the two genera. The abdominal appendages of L. vemae do not bear as complete a fringe of small teeth around the papillae as in D. incerta . Furthermore, the knobs on the terminal article of the mandibular palp, one of the most important characteristics used by McCain (1968) to differentiate between Deutella (knobs absent) and Luconacia (knobs present), are not present in L. vemae . Therefore, the species Luconacia vemae must be transferred, as Luconacia incerta , to the genus Deutella with the genus Luconacia becoming a synonym.