Kyska Shoemaker 1964

Kyska Shoemaker, 1964

(Fig. 23)

Kyska Shoemaker, 1964: 391.—J.L. Barnard, 1969: 346.— Barnard & Karaman, 1991: 424 (key), 494.

Type species. Kyska dalli Shoemaker, 1964, original designation

Included species. Kyska includes one species: K. dalli Shoemaker, 1964.

Diagnostic description. Antenna 1 peduncle article 1 without anterodistal lobe; accessory flagellum forming cap covering callynophore. Antenna 2 with brush setae. Mandible molar a setose tongue. Maxilla 1 outer plate a well developed 7/4 crown. Maxilla 2 inner plate significantly shorter than outer plate. Gnathopod 1 chelate; coxa 1 large, about as long as coxa 2, subrectangular with concave anterior margin ; ischium short (length less than 2 × breadth); carpus compressed; propodus margins tapering distally. Uropod 2 inner ramus not constricted. Telson notched.

Remarks. Only three uristid genera (Euonyx, Kyska and Stephonyx) have chelate first gnathopods. Unlike Kyska, Euonyx and Stephonyx both have reduced vestigial coxae on gnathopod 1.

Based on the well developed coxa of gnathopod 1 with a concave anterior margin and a compressed carpus Kyska is similar to Abyssorchomene and Koroga. Kyska differs from both genera in the chelate first gnathopod, from Koroga in less well developed eyes and a deeply cleft telson (notched in Koroga) and from Abyssorchomene in the straight mandibular incisors (curved in Abyssorchomene) in the small setose molar and in the tapering margins of the gnathopod 1 propodus.

Distribution. Arctic. Alaskan endemic.