Tanystylum rehderi Child, 1970

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 : 2734

Tanystylum rehderi Child, 1970

(figure 4)

Tanystylum rehderi Child, 1970: 305–306 , figure 5; 1983: 705; 1988a: 53–54; 1991: 142; Müller, 1989: 126, figures 22–39; Stock, 1994: 38.

Material examined. Turtle Bay , intertidal in C. prolifera , 12 July 1999, one juvenile; 5 October 1998 , one X. Pandora Reef, in rubble with turf algae, Dictyota sp. and Laurencia sp. , 4–6 m, in rubble, 28 October 1999, two juveniles; 19 April 2000, 2 W.

Description. Trunk length 0.86 mm, width 0.60 mm, not segmented, crurigers crowded, discoid-shaped body, crurigers with single anterodistal tubercle; ocular tubercle short, with tiny pointing tip; abdomen long, pointing upwards, with few setae near the tip. Proboscis funnel-like, tapering and downcurved. Chelifores just a hint of tiny knobs on the anterior margin of the cephalic segment. Palps sixsegmented, fourth longest. Oviger segments short, inflated, last segment with two simple spines. Legs short, robust, femur and both tibiae subequal, a single spine distally on first coxa, three or four spines on femur, femora quite swollen in female. Propodus curved, no heel, two heel spines, and six sole spines. Main claw about three-quarters of the propodus, small auxiliaries.

Distribution. This is the first record of this species for Australia. It was described from shallow waters of the Society Islands (Child, 1970) and subsequently reported from the Palau Islands (Child, 1983), the type locality on Mooréa (Müller, 1989) and Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean (Child, 1988a). It is a rather shallow-water species, the deepest record being from 11 m.

Remarks. This species is one of the few Tanystylum characterized by the styliform shape of the proboscis. The height and the shape of the ocular tubercle and the basal swelling of the abdomen are the main features that differentiate this species from closely related Tanystylum species.