(Fig. 30)
Phtisica marina Slabber, 1769: 77, pl.10.— Chevreux & Fage, 1925: 434, fig. 422.— Fiorencis, 1940: 11, fig. 1, pl. 1, figs. 1–2; Costa, 1960: 99.— McCain, 1968: 91, figs. 46–47.— McCain & Steingerg, 1970: 65.— Cavedini, 1981: 545 –546.—Krapp- Schickel, 1993: 806 –808, figs. 549–550.— Laubitz, 1995: 83.— Larsen, 1998: 83 –84, fig. 1.— Guerra-García & Takeuchi, 2002: 705.— Riera et al., 2003: 162 –163, fig. 2D–E.— Guerra-García et al., 2010a: 122 –123.— Zeina et al., 2015: 93 –95, fig. 19.
Proto brunneovittata Haller, 1879: 23.— Haller, 1880: 399, pl. 22, figs. 19–22.
Proto pedata Haller, 1879: 230.— Haller, 1880: 398.
Proto ventricosa Mayer, 1882: 22, pl. 1, fig. 1; pl. 3, fig. 16–29; pl. 4, figs. 12–13; pl. 5, figs. 1–5.— Mayer, 1890: 12, pl. 3, figs. 4–6; pl. 5, figs. 3–6; pl. 6, fig. 1; pl. 7, fig. 1.— Mayer, 1903: 20, pl. 6, fig. 23.— Monterosso, 1915: 3.
(A more extensive and detailed list of synonimies can be found in McCain & Steinberg, 1970)
Material examined. DIVA-Artabria I 2002: 1 male, AT-150, 8 September 2002, 43°34.937’N, 008°35.386’W, 155 m sandy mud; 1 juvenile, EBS-150, 14 September 2002, 43°33.852’N, 008°36.830’W, 149 m, sand (?). DIVA- Artabria I 2003: 4 males, EBS-150, 14 September 2003, 43°34.127’N, 008°36.562’W, 152 m, muddy sand. VERTIDOS 2004: 1 male, CA-EBS-150-04, 18 September 2004, 42°50.507’N, 009°25.773’W, 151 m, muddy sand; 1 female, AG-EBS-150-04, 17 September 2004, 42°30.391’N, 009°19.517’W, 148 m, muddy sand; 1 male, CH-EBS-150-04, 21 September 2004, 42°15.780’N, 009°10.500’W, 150 m, sand. APLACOPHORA 2006: 4 males, Est. 1 EBS-160-06, 0 4 July 2006, 43°36.686’N, 008°33.855’W, 166 m, sand; 4 males, Est. 2 EBS-140-06, 0 4 July 2006, 43°33.211’N, 008°29.499’W, 137 m, sand. SELVA 2008: 1 male, EBS-20, 17 July 2008, 43°58.84’N, 008°15.625’W, 237 m, sand with mud; 5 males, 8 females, 3 juveniles (1 male and 1 female used for lateral view figures MHNUSC 25115), AT-13, 17 July 2008, 44°06.496’N, 008°23.522’W, 337 m, carbonate crusts mixed with sediment; 1 female, 1 juvenile, AT-14, 17 July 2008, 44°00.99’N, 008°32.91’W, 344 m, sand; 1 female, DRN-11-3 19 July 2008, 44°06.28’N, 008°44.48’W, 440 m, sand; 1 male, DRN-11-4, 19 July 2008, 44°07.628’N, 008°45.871’W, 412 m, sand; 1 male, 1 female, DRN-20, 17 July 2008, 43°58.719’N, 008°15.691’W, 233 m, sand. DIVA-Artabria II 2008: 5 males, 10 females, 7 juveniles, 07-DRN-P, 20 September 2008, 43°24.95’N, 09°25.50’W, 490 m, carbonate crusts. FORSAGAL 2009: 1 male, 18 DRN, 24 February 2009, 42°23.069’N, 09°24.557’W, 455 m, sand.
Remarks. Guerra-García et al. (2010a) and Zeina et al. (2015) pointed out that the presence of developed pereopods 3 and 4 makes the morphological recognition of this species easy and that in many ecological studies of Mediterranean and Atlantic waters, specimens have probably been assigned to this species just on the basis of pereopod 3 and 4 fully developed (which is a very distinctive character) without careful examination of other characters of abdomen and mouthparts. Specimens from deep-sea Galician waters show similar morphological characteristics to specimens previously described from shallow waters of Mediterranean (e.g. Krapp-Shickel, 1993) or Atlantic (e.g. Zeina et al., 2015). This species has been reported to be collected in plankton tows (see McCain & Steinberg, 1970). Other species reported as abundant from plankton samples, such as Caprella equilibra (Takeuchi & Sawamoto, 1998; Guerra-García, unpublished data) also show wide distribution, so, probably, a higher resistance and capabilities to survive longer in water column could naturally contribute to a higher natural dispersal of some caprellid species. Furthermore, rafting (organism travelling on floating items over the sea surface which may be transported to areas which they might not have reached otherwise) has been reported for many caprellid species (see Martin & Gutow, 2005) and this factor could also explain the wider distribution of some species. Together with these natural mechanisms, ship fouling is also an important factor to explain why some caprellid species show wide distribution in spite of having direct developing and lack planktonic larvae. In any case, although Phtisica marina seems to be widely distributed along both shallow and deeper waters along Mediterranean and Atlantic, a detailed morphological revision of abundant material, together with molecular studies and rearing experiments in laboratory are also necessary to assess if all the Atlantic and Mediterranean specimens belong to the same species or if we are facing to cryptic species of a complex, as described for other species such as Caprella acanthifera [sensu lato] (see Krapp-Shickel & Vader, 1998; Zeina et al., 2015), Caprella penantis [sensu lato] (see Cabezas et al., 2013a, b), Pseudoprotella phasma [sensu lato] (Zeina et al., 2015; present study) or Caprella californica [sensu lato] (Takeuhi & Oyamada, 2013; Ros et al., 2014; Cabezas et al., 2014).
Distribution. Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean. Indopacific (see Krapp-Schickel, 1993; Laubitz, 1995).