Nymphopsis acinacispinata Williams, 1933

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 : 2733

Nymphopsis acinacispinata Williams, 1933

Nymphopsis acinacispinatus Williams, 1933: 173–180 , figures 1–5.

Nymphopsis acinacispinatus acinacispinatus: Clark, 1963: 5 .

Nymphopsis acinacispinata: Stock, 1992: 82 .

Material examined. Turtle Bay, intertidal in the red algae Cheilosporum spectabile (Harvey ex Grunov) and C. prolifera , 12 July 1999, five W, two X, four juveniles; 14 May 1999, one juvenile.

Description. Trunk length 2.35 mm, trunk width 2.30 mm, segmentation not evident, massively ornamented, three dorsal tubercles taller than ocular tubercle, comb rows of spines and a long pointed apical spine on each tubercle; crurigers with low, distal spiny tubercles; abdomen very long, bent, with spiny tubercles. Scape two-segmented, trumpet-shaped, second segment longer. Palps ninesegmented, spines and setae on distal segments. Ovigers with simple long spines distally. Legs spinose, five and three anterior compound spines on second and third coxae, respectively, three distal compound spines on femur; cement gland a short duct located distally; main claw almost as long as the propodus, auxiliaries threequarters length of the main claw. Males distinguished by the presence of long ventral spurs in second, third and fourth coxae bearing the genital pores.

Distribution. This species had only been reported once for Australia when first described from Port Curtis in Queensland (Williams, 1941). This record extends the distribution of the species to tropical North Queensland. The species is also known from Vizhingom Bay in India (Kurian, 1953 in Stock, 1992).

Remarks. The three tall spiny tubercles carried dorsally in this species are a characteristic shared with N. bathursti Williams, 1940 , first considered a subspecies of N. acinacispinata (see Stock, 1992), and the only Australian Nymphopsis related to this species. In this study N. acinacispinata was mostly collected among the coralline articulated alga Cheilosporum spectabile , that has a spinose pattern and displays a similar pink coloration to that of the sea spiders, apparently providing substratum for camouflage.