Endeis mollis (Carpenter, 1904)

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 : 2761

Endeis mollis (Carpenter, 1904)

(figure 15)

Phoxichilus mollis Carpenter, 1904: 182–183 , figures 1–7; Stock, 1968: 58–59; 1994: 68 (refs); Child, 1979: 66 (refs).

Material examined. Rib Reef, 8 m, on Millepora exaesa (Forskal) , 27 June 2000, two X; 26 July 2000, two X; 7 July 2000, one W; 8 July 2000, three W, six X; 26 August 2000, one W.

Description. Trunk 2.8 mm in length, 1.21 mm wide, fully segmented, two white dorsal stripes from the base of the ocular tubercle to the base of the abdomen and white stripes along the legs contrasting with spotted red-coloured diverticula. Ovigers seven-segmented, second segment longest, a single spinule on each of the distal segments. Legs smooth, femur and tibiae subequal, one or two distal spines on first coxa, femur slightly swollen distally, 22–24 cement gland pores distributed in a single row laterally on femur, propodus distal margin with four spines, without heel, three heel spines, 9–10 sole spines well-developed; auxiliaries longer than half the length of the claw.

Distribution. Endeis mollis is now known as a circumtropical species being common in the Indo-west Pacific and the Caribbean. It has been collected as far north as the Izu Peninsula, Japan (Nakamura and Child, 1983). The apparent difficulties in differentiating the species from Endeis meridionalis Bohm, 1879 or other closely related species may confound the pattern of distribution.

Remarks. Examining reports and museum samples of Endeis mollis I notice there is some ambiguity differentiating E. mollis and E. meridionalis . Endeis mollis was described as a smooth species, more glabrous and less spiny than E. meridionalis . The latter has a strong spine on femur, small spinules on the collar and the second tibia is subequal to the femur (Carpenter, 1904; Stock, 1965). These characters are not present in these specimens; however, identical unreported specimens at the AM have been identified as E. meridionalis . There is variation in the number of cement gland pores between males collected at Rib Reef (24 pores) and Goold Island (22 pores), although only one male is available from Goold Island. The apparent variation of this character between such nearby populations suggests its diminished usefulness at the time of raising new species based on number of cement gland pores.