Quinquelaophonte Wells, Hicks and Coull, 1982

Walker-Smith, Genefor K., 2004, A new species of Quinquelaophonte (Crustacea: Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Laophontidae) from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 61 (2), pp. 217-227 : 218

Quinquelaophonte Wells, Hicks and Coull, 1982

Quinquelaophonte Wells, Hicks and Coull, 1982: 178–179 .

Type species. Laophonte quinquespinosa Sewell, 1924 .

Diagnosis. A1 of female with 5 or 6 segments; A2 exopod reduced, 1-segmented; P2–P4 exopods of male strongly modified; P2 endopod of male not modified (same as for female); P5 of male reduced to 4–5 setae arising from the somite margin; caudal rami with 3 terminal setae, only one of which is well developed (seta V).

Species. Quinquelaophonte brevicornis (T. Scott, 1894) ; Q. quinquespinosa ( Sewell, 1924) ; Q. capillata ( Wilson, 1932) ; Q. longifurcata ( Lang, 1965) ; Q. parasigmoides (Božić, 1969) ; Q. wellsi ( Hamond, 1973) ; Q. candelabrum Wells, Hicks and Coull, 1982 ; Q. bunakenensis Mielke, 1997 ; Q. koreana Lee, 2003 ; Q. prolixasetae sp. nov.

Distribution. See Table 1.

Habitat. Marine, intertidal and shallow subtidal; in saline lakes; sand and mud. Frequently recorded in detritus-rich habitats.

Remarks. Fiers (1986) discovered specimens of Q. quinquespinosa (from the West Indies) and noted the specimens had an “interesting feature”: the inner distal edge of P3 endopod-1 with a few “long and fragile hairs” ( Fiers, 1986: 142). Because Fiers (1986) believed these “hairs” resembled the inner seta of Q. parasigmoides , he suggested Q. parasigmoides was within the range of variability of Q. quinquespinosa and therefore should be considered synonymous with it. However, Lee (2003) rejected this, instead believing confirmation of the synonymy required examination of more specimens, from more localities and I agree.

In his catalogue of marine harpacticoids, Bodin (1997) listed Paronychocamptus wilsoni Coull, 1976 as a junior synonym of Q. capillata but Lee and Huys (1999) recognized P. wilsoni as a valid species and I support this. Inspection of Coull’s (1976) illustrations of P. wilsoni revealed distinct differences between this species and Q. capillata . Firstly, the P3 endopod-2 of male P. wilsoni is modified and has a spine-like distal outgrowth and this modification does not occur in Q. capillata . Secondly, the P5 exopod of the male is well developed and has four setae in P. wilsoni but is reduced and represented by five setae in Q. capillata . For all other species of Quinquelaophonte the P5 exopod of male is reduced. The P5 of female P. wilsoni has only four setae on the baseoendopod and five setae on the exopod, while in Q. capillata there are five setae on the baseoendopod and six setae on the exopod. The caudal setae of the two species also differ; P. wilsoni has two well developed terminal setae but Q. capillata has only one well developed terminal seta (seta V) — the possession of only one well developed caudal seta is a character state defining Quinquelaophonte . The setal formula for the swimming legs also varies between these species ( Table 2). Lastly, when Coull (1986) re-examined Wilson’s type material he discovered the A2 exopod of Q. capillata had three setae, and not two as originally reported. The A2 exopod of P. wilsoni has only two setae.