Protorchestia campbelliana (Bousfield, 1964)

Parorchestia tenuis.— Chilton, 1909: 612 (? in part).

Parorchestia campbelliana Bousfield, 1964: 50, figs. 3, 4.— Barnard & Karaman, 1991: 369, fig 71B.

Protorchestia campbelliana.— Bousfield, 1982: 7.— Serejo & Lowry, 2008: 196.— De Broyer & Jazdzewski, 1993: 98.

Transorchestia campbelliana.— Duncan, 1994: 9.— Pugh et al., 2002: 1075.—De Broyer et al., 2009: 235.

Type material. Holotype, NMNZ CR.002444, female, 9.5 mm (ovigerous), (Rick Webber, pers comm. 2021). Not examined.

Type locality. Courrejolles Peninsula, Campbell Island, New Zealand (~ 52°30'S 169°5''E).

Size. Female, 9.5 mm.

Remarks. Parorchestia campbelliana Bousfield, 1964 was described from a single female, 9.5 mm in body length from Campbell Island, New Zealand and is the only record of the genus in New Zealand (Bousfield, 1964). Using characters which are not sexually dimorphic, Protorchestia campbelliana agrees with the current diagnosis of the genus Protorchestia Bousfield, 1982. The Protorchestia characters include: having antenna 1 long, the mandible left lacinia mobilis with 5 cusps, the maxilliped palp article 4 small in size, having pleopods well-developed, a uropod 1 exopod without marginal robust setae, the uropod 3 rami subequal in length to telson and lastly the telson with 2 apical robust setae per lobe.

There is a mixed opinion here whether the illustration in Figure 4 of Bousfield (1964) labelled as a telson is actually an upper lip with robust setae, particularly given all other articles illustrated on the same plate are mouthparts (Bousfield, 1964: fig 4). Providing this assumption is correct, there is the possibility that P. campbelliana is indeed just a female of the more widely recorded coastal talitrid B. quoyana, although notably not previously reported from Campbell Island. Alternately if Bousfield’s figure caption is correct and the article is a telson, then placement of P. campbelliana remains. Bousfield states in the text that the ‘lower lip’ is lost. In this case, Bousfield has accurately described the figured telson in the text.

Further collection in the Subantarctic islands and close examination of Bousfield’s original specimen is required to resolve this problem. See discussion for comments on records of talitrids from seacliffs.

Habitat. In an albatross mollymawk bird rookery (Bousfield 1964).

Distribution. New Zealand. Campbell Island: Courrejolles Peninsula (Bousfield 1964).