Lowrya Parker 1998, n.gen.

Lowrya n.gen.

Diagnosis. Unique characters are an elongate frontal knob and a spine mid-way along ventral margin of second exopodial article of the second antenna. Unusual characters are as follows. A rectangular oval carapace (with rounded corners); red colouration on rostrum when viewed from certain directions due to strong sclerotization (structural colour, not to be confused with maroon pigmentation of first antennae which is often visible through the carapace); lateral processes arising from rostrum, along dorsal edge of incisure. First antenna: very large basal "sucker" of cseta on adult male first antennae, arising from separate cup-like basal section; some halophores (setules on first antennae; Parker, 1995, 1998) with spinules. Second antenna: endopodite with 3 articles; spine on ventral margin of second exopodial article; third exopodial article seta with proximal robust setae. Mandible with three broad terminal claws (of similar length), ventromedial and ventrolateral mandibular claws with very long spinules. Fourth limb: 1 <x-seta (with many setules) and 2 ~-setae. Sixthlimb: terminal article shortand approximately square. Seventh limb: few non-terminal and terminal setae; few terminal long and short teeth. Male copulatory "limb": hood with peak with an abrupt joint near inner edge of limb. Furca: very broad fourth claw; claws 2 and 4 fused to lamella. Upper lip: single unpaired anteroventral field of nozzles; short tusks. Posterior of male body: without dorsal folds.

Type species. Lowrya taiti n.sp.

Species composition. Lowrya contains L. taiti n.sp. and L. kornickeri n.sp.

Etymology. In honour of James K. Lowry, carcinologist, who discovered new guilds of scavenging crustaceans off Australia with unexpected compositions, including high proportions of cypridinids.

Remarks. Lowrya is most similar to the monotypic genus Sheina Harding, 1966. Both genera bear very large "suckers" on the c-setae of the male first antennae, which appear to be morphologically similar (arising from a basal cup-like process). These two genera are only known from easternAustralia. Lowrya differs from Sheina in the shapes of its carapace and furca, and in that it bears a welldeveloped coxal endite on its mandibles, the c-seta (lateral seta) of the terminal endopodial article of the mandible lacks a dorsal hirsute pad (see Kornicker, 1986). Lowrya also shares some characters with Vargula Skogsberg, 1920, e.g., an upper lip with tusks without lobes, endopodite of second antenna with three articles (the second article with a seta). It can be noted that Vargula subantarctica Kornicker, 1975, for example, also bears some halophores with spines, and males of V. psydrax Kornicker, 1994, bear a first antenna with an almost cup-like process at the base of the c-seta, although the "sucker", which is not as well developed as in Lowrya, does not arise from this process. However, Vargula is polyphyletic and requires reorganisation (Cohen & Morin, 1990). Lowrya bears only one a-seta on itsfourthlimb,acharactersharedwith V.magnaKornicker, 1984, V. tsujii, Kornicker & Baker, 1977, and Kornickeria Cohen & Morin, 1993, although Lowrya has a have very different carapace shape to these taxa. The sclerotization of the rostrum, forming lateral processes, in Lowrya is most similarto that of Paracypridina Poulsen, 1962, and to some extent Heterodesmus Brady, 1866, although Lowrya is separated from these genera by the possession of an endopodite of the second antenna with three articles.