Eupronoe armata Claus 1879

Eupronoe armata Claus, 1879

Eupronoe armata Claus, 1879: 28; Siegel-Causey, 1982: 269; Vinogradov et al., 1996: 448 (key), 451, fig. 196; Brusca & Hendrickx, 2005: 153 (list); García-Madrigal, 2007: 161 (list); Gasca, 2009 b: 87 (list); Lavaniegos & Hereu, 2009: 142–147 (passim), 142 (table 1), 152 (Appendix 1); Lavaniegos, 2014: 4 (table 1); Gasca et al., 2012:126, 134, 136.

? Pronoe brunnea Dana, 1852: 1015, pl. 69, fig.5.

Material examined. 1M and 3F, from one station (Fig. 1). TALUD III. St. 19 (25°12’00”N, 109°07’00”W), August 20, 1991, 1M, 3F, I-K, surface to 410 m (TD 920 m) (ICML-EMU-12761).

Distribution. Circumtropical. In the eastern Pacific it is known from the Gulf of California and off the W coast of the Baja California Peninsula (Brusca & Hendrickx 2005; Lavaniegos & Hereu 2009; Lavaniegos 2014, 2017), and from off the coasts of Jalisco and Colima, from Punta Farallón, Jalisco (19°19’77”N, 105°00’28”W), to Cuyutlán, Colima (18°58’24”N, 104°13’51”W), in the Mexican Pacific (Gasca et al. 2012).

Remarks. In the Gulf of California, E. armata is known from Isla Angel de la Guarda, in the northern Gulf of California, to off Cabo San Lucas, SW Gulf of California, Mexico (Siegel-Causey 1982; Brusca & Hendrickx 2005; García-Madrigal 2007), but it was found in a single station during our survey (Fig. 1), still within its wide known distributional range in the eastern Pacific. Eupronoe armata is very similar to E. intermedia Stebbing, 1888, but Tashiro (1978) demonstrated that it is a valid species. Eupronoe intermedia features a pointed head, particularly in males, ending in a distinctive beak; the pereopod 7 has an oval-shaped terminal article while in E. armata it is round, as long as wide. Total length of adult specimens is 7‒8 mm.