Mallacoota sp.

Appadoo, Chandani, Myers, Alan A. & Fagoonee, Indur, 2002, The genus Mallacoota (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Melitidae) from Mauritius, with description of a new species, Journal of Natural History 36 (7), pp. 767-796 : 791-795

Mallacoota sp.

Mallacoota subcarinata: Ledoyer, 1978: 281 , ®gure 32.

This species was attributed by Ledoyer (1978) to Mallacoota subcarinata (Haswell) , which is characterized by a strongly setose male gnathopod 2 ( table 1), a feature not apparent in Ledoyer’s Mauritius description and ®gures. This species was not collected in the present study.

Remarks

A wide variety of material has in the past been attributed to Mallacoota subcarinata (Haswell) . It is clear that M. subcarinata as currently identi®ed in the literature, represents a complex of species. Two quite distinct groups occur, one characterized by a setose male gnathopod 2 propodus and the other by a poorly setiferous male gnathopod 2 propodus. The second group contains two subgroups, one with a spatulate dactylus, the other with a normal dactylus. Other variables include notched versus unnotched coxae 1±2, excavate versus non-excavate male gnathopod 2 palm, presence of a ¯at-topped tooth on propodus ventral margin, long versus short mandible palp article 3 compared to 2, subquadrate versus acute epimeron 3 and bi®d versus non-bi®d telson ( table 1).

Habitat of Mallacoota species in Mauritius. The four Mallacoota species recorded in this study occur in the intertidal zone or shallow-subtidal with depths not exceeding 1 m. The four species occur on a wide variety of algae and at diOEerent sites, except for Mallacoota latibrachium which is rare and was collected only from three sites. The observation that some of the Mallacoota species are found in a variety of algae is not surprising as species of this genus are reported to nestle among many types of substrata ( Barnard, 1976). Mallacoota species are common among red algae, brown algae and coral rubble habitats as reported by Myers (1985) from Fiji.

At some sites, for example, Roches Noire and Souillac, the three species, Mallacoota caerulea , Mallacoota latibrachium and Mallacoota insignis co-occur with each other. The occurrence of the four species at diOEerent sites and presence on diOEerent algae or seagrass are summarised in tables 2 and 3, respectively.