Sericosura bamberi ? Arango & Linse 2015

Sericosura bamberi ? Arango & Linse, 2015

(Fig. 3)

Sericosura bamberi. Arango and Linse, 2015, pp. 39–42, Figs. 2–3. Material examined: juvenile (34IV-TVG0801), Station 34IV-SWIR-S035-TVG08, SWIR, 37.66°S 50.47°E, TV- Grab, 1732 m depth, 13 Apr 2015.

Distribution. The type material for this species was collected from hydrothermal vents in the East Scotia Ridge, Southern Ocean, at 1399–1462 m depth. This locality is thousands of kilometers away from the location where this juvenile specimen was obtained.

Remarks. It is difficult to determine species identity of juvenile stages in this genus (as in general in pycnogonids), especially as most of the species descriptions lack the description of the juvenile. However, the characters of this specimen agreed mostly with those of S. bamberi. Apart from the weak chelae with smooth fingers and not fully developed ovigers, the juvenile is tentatively assigned to S. bamberi based on the sevensegmented palps, bent bulky proboscis, funnel-shaped cephalon and an overall setose appearance (Arango and Linse 2015) (Fig. 2).

The morphological differences between the juvenile and the type specimen of S. bamberi were the height of ocular tubercle and length ratio of palp articles (Fig. 2-C, E, F). The ocular tubercle was not visible from dorsal view, and is lower than that of the type specimen. The length ratio of seventh palp article and fifth is nearly 3/5.

Sericosura cyrtoma Child & Segonzac, 1996, S. dimorpha and S. curva Arango & Linse, 2015 had seven palp articles with the fifth being the longers, but the juvenile was easily distinguished from these species by the bent bulky proboscis. Arango and Linse (2015) pointed the variable height of ocular tubercle among individuals examined, so the lower ocular tubercle and longer fifth palp article were not considered sufficient reasons to assign the juvenile to a new species.