Pallenopsis hoeki Miers, 1884

Arango, Claudia P., 2003, Sea spiders (Pycnogonida, Arthropoda) from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: new species, new records and ecological annotations, Journal of Natural History 37 (22), pp. 2723-2772 : 2741

Pallenopsis hoeki Miers, 1884

Pallenopsis hoeki Miers, 1884: 324 , pl. 35, figure B.

? Phoxichilidium hoeki: Haswell, 1884: 1022 .

Pallenopsis (Rigona) rigens: Loman, 1908: 68–69 , pl. 9, figures 128–133.

Pallenopsis (Rigona) hoeki: Flynn, 1929: 257–258 .

Pallenopsis hoeki: Stock, 1954: 8 ; Clark, 1963: 42, figure 24E; Child, 1975: 19.

Material examined. Pandora Reef, 5 m, among rubble, 29 October 1999, one X (coll. Diaz-Pulido); 19 April 2000, one X, two juveniles.

Description. Trunk length 1.86 mm, width 0.84 mm, segmented; neck projected, crurigers very close to each other but not touching, the first pair larger; ocular tubercle anterior on cephalon; abdomen with three rows of spines; proboscis with shallow constriction on distal half. Scape one-segmented, robust, setose palm perpendicular to the scape, half its length; fingers short, movable finger with serrate margin, pad at base of fingers typical of Pallenopsis . Palps one-segmented, just a short knob near the insertion of the chelifores. Ovigers nine-segmented in the female, 10-segmented in males, with distal spinules in distal segments. Legs smooth, cement gland a single duct ventrally on femur, propodus with three heel spines, tiny sole spines; main claw curved, half the size of the propodus; auxiliary claws about half the size of the main claw.

Distribution. This species is known from locations in Indonesia and the Philippines, several localities in Western Australia (specimens in the WAM collection) and it has been reported from islands off Cape York.

Remarks. It is not common to find Pallenopsis species in such shallow localities. This is the shallowest record for the species, reported from 7 to 134 m. Contrary to Child’s comment that P. hoeki is seldom collected (Child, 1975), unreported material deposited at the WAM and the present material suggest the species may be more common than expected.