Vibilia caeca Bulycheva, 1955: 1050

Vibilia caeca Bulycheva (Fig 29)

Vibilia caeca Bulycheva, 1955: 1050. — Vinogradov 1956: 208–209, fig. 7. Vinogradov et al. 1982: 224–226, fig. 111. Vinogradov 1992: 325. Vinogradov 1990b: 106, fig. 1. Zeidler 1992: 93–94, fig. 6.

Type material

The syntypes of V. caeca are in the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia. The type locality is the northwestern Pacific Ocean, near the Kuril Islands.

Material examined (13 specimens)

Tasman Sea: 1 lot (AM), 1 specimen. North Pacific: 2 lots ( SAMA ) , 4 lots (USNM), 12 specimens.

Diagnosis

Body length up to 6 mm. Eyes absent. Pleon distinctly broader than pereon. Antennae 1 inserted mid­laterally on head, as long as head and first three pereonites combined; flagellum elongate, lanceolate, excised on ventral margin for distal half. Antennae 2 very short, consisting of four articles. Gnathopod 2; carpal process almost as long as propodus. Pereopods 3 & 4; dactylus length about 0.5x propodus. Pereopods 5 & 6; dactylus length about 0.4x propodus. Pereopod 7; basis rectangular, almost twice as long as wide, as long as ischium to carpus combined, with small, sharp, anterodistal projection and rounded posterodistal lobe overlapping ischium. Lateral corners of last urosomite not produced. Uropod 3; peduncle distinctly longer than rami; sexual dimorphism of endopod not evident. Telson triangular, pointed terminally, length about half peduncle of U3.

Remarks

This species most closely resembles V. australis, but the absence of eyes is a unique feature amongst species of Vibilia.

The salp associate has not been recorded for this species.

Distribution

This species is only known from a few records from the northern Pacific Ocean, the northern Indian Ocean, the southwestern part of the Bering Sea and Kuril Islands (Bussol Strait), and the Tasman Sea. I have also collected it recently from the San Pedro Basin, off Los Angeles, California.