Published November 16, 2021 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Mauritiorchestia Green & Appadoo & Lowry & Myers 2021, gen. nov.

  • 1. Department of Biosciences and Ocean Studies Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius. & alison 0534 @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 6970 - 3861
  • 2. Department of Biosciences and Ocean Studies Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius. & chandani @ uom. ac. mu; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 4381 - 8238
  • 3. Australian Museum Research Institute, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
  • 4. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Cork Enterprise Centre, Distillery Fields, North Mall, Cork, Ireland.

Description

Mauritiorchestia gen. nov.

Type species. Mauritiorchestia fayetta sp. nov.

Included species. Mauritiorchestia is currently monotypic.

Category. Mascupod.

Ecological type. Sand-hopper.

Etymology. A compound noun derived from the name of the country and the name of a related genus.

Diagnostic description ( male ).

Head. Antenna 1 short, not reaching midpoint of peduncular article 5 of antenna 2. Antenna 2 peduncular articles incrassate . Mandible left lacinia mobilis 5-cuspidate. Maxilla 1 palp absent . Labium without inner lobes. Maxilliped palp article 2 with distomedial lobe; article 4 fused with article 3.

Pereon. Gnathopod 1 sexually dimorphic; subchelate; coxa much smaller that coxa 2; posterior margin of carpus and propodus each with lobe covered in palmate setae; propodus anterior margin with 4 groups of robust setae, ‘subtriangular’ with well-developed posterodistal lobe, palm transverse; dactylus simplidactylate. Gnathopod 2 sexually dimorphic; subchelate; propodus palm acute, rounded distally and sinuous, with small to large midpalmar sinus, without proximal sinus, without large distal sinus, without proximal spine or thumb defining palm; without large projection near dactylar hinge; dactylus not modified distally, blunt, fitting into sulcus internally. Pereopods 3–5 cuspidactylate, 6–7 simplidactylate. Pereopod 4 significantly shorter than pereopod 3; carpus significantly shorter than that of pereopod 3; dactylus amplidactylate, thickened proximally with notch midway along posterior margin. Pereopod 6 subequal in length to pereopod 7; not sexually dimorphic; basis moderately expanded; male merus expanded, carpus not expanded. Pereopod 7 not sexually dimorphic; basis broadly expanded, posterior margin smooth or minutely serrate margin without setae, posterodistal lobe present, rounded, produced downwards almost to merus; merus expanded distally, subtriangular, anterior margin slightly straight; carpus expanded, subrectangular, slightly shorter than propodus; propodus slender.

Pleon. Pleopods 1–3 all well-developed. Uropod 1 peduncle distolateral robust seta absent; exopod without marginal robust setae; endopod with marginal robust setae in 1 row. Uropod 2 exopod without marginal robust setae; endopod with marginal robust setae in 1 row. Uropod 3 ramus subequal in length to peduncle. Telson completely cleft, with 6 robust setae per lobe.

Remarks. Mauritiorchestia is a distinctive Indian Ocean genus. Based on an incrassate second antenna, gnathopod 1 with palmate lobes on the carpus and propodus and uropod 1 exopod without marginal robust setae, it is most similar to the north-western Pacific genus Sinorchestia Miyamoto & Morino, 1999 and the wide-ranging genus Platorchestia Bousfield, 1982. Sinorchestia differs significantly from Mauritiorchestia in having a ventral plate on the third peduncular article of antenna 2, a parachelate first gnathopod and a large posteroproximal sinus on the dactylus of gnathopod 2. Platorchestia differs from Mauritiorchestia mainly in having a cuspidactylate first gnathopod and the exopod of uropod 2 with marginal robust setae in one row.

Distribution. Mauritius, Western Indian Ocean.

Notes

Published as part of Green, M. A. A., Appadoo, C., Lowry, J. K. & Myers, A. A., 2021, A new genus and species of sand-hopper, Mauritiorchestia fayetta gen. nov., sp. nov (Amphipoda, Talitridae) from Mauritius, pp. 295-300 in Zootaxa 5068 (2) on pages 296-297, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5068.2.9, http://zenodo.org/record/5704439

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Talitridae
Genus
Mauritiorchestia
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Amphipoda
Phylum
Arthropoda
Scientific name authorship
Green & Appadoo & Lowry & Myers
Taxonomic status
gen. nov.
Taxon rank
genus
Taxonomic concept label
Mauritiorchestia Green, Appadoo, Lowry & Myers, 2021

References

  • Miyamoto, H. & Morino, H. (1999) Taxonomic studies on the Talitridae (Crustacea, Amphipoda) from Taiwan I. The genera Talorchestia and Sinorchestia n. gen. Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, 38, 169 - 200.
  • Bousfield, E. L. (1982) The amphipod superfamily Talitroidea in the northeastern Pacific region. Family Talitridae. Systematics and distributional ecology. National. Museum of Natural Science, Publications in Biological Oceanography, 11, i - vii + 1 - 73.