Calliaxina sakaii de Saint Laurent in de Saint Laurent and Le Loeuff, 1979

Poore, Gary, 2021, Indo-West Pacific and Australian species of Eucalliacidae with descriptions of four new species (Crustacea: Axiidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 80, pp. 1-41 : 16

Calliaxina sakaii de Saint Laurent in de Saint Laurent and Le Loeuff, 1979

Figures 11 , 12f, g

Callianassa (Callichirus) novaebritanniae .— Sakai, 1966): 161–

168, figs 1–4. Calliax sakaii de Saint Laurent in de Saint Laurent and Le Loeuff,

1979: 95.—de Saint Laurent and Manning, 1982: 212, 222–223, figs

1g, 2c.— Sakai, 1987: 305–306.— Sakai, 2005: 203. Paraglypturus sakaii .— Sakai, 1999: 124, fig. 33d, e. Calliaxina sakaii .— Ngoc-Ho, 2003: 489, 493, 496, fig. 20J.—

Sakai, 2011: 502.— Sakai, 2018: 739.

Material examined. Japan, Tomioka , MNHN Th 312 (holotype male, 10 mm), MNHN Th313 (female), NMV J59763 (male, 6.7 mm; female, 7.0 mm; ex ULLZ-8894*) .

Diagnosis. Sternite 7 with complete transverse V-shaped groove, anteromedial lobe acute. Antennule peduncle reaching to base of antenna peduncle article 5. Maxilliped 3 exopod reaching third to half-way along ischium. Major cheliped merus, lower margin with several proximal teeth; propodus distomesial margin with setae aligned in 4 groups of 10, 5, 7 and 4 setae. Male pleopod 1 article 2 3 times as long as wide; appendix interna prominent.

Remarks. Differences between C. sakaii and the more widespread C. novaebritanniae were confirmed by re-examination of the holotype and more recently collected material. The male pleopod 1 has a bilobed proximal lobe and pleonal sternite 1 has a pair of oval plates supporting the pleopods, both similar to C novaebritanniae . Calliaxina sakaii differs from C. novaebritanniae in the exopod of maxilliped 3 reaching half the length of the ischium (vs overlapping the merus), a more acute rostrum, fully calcified branchiostegites (vs weakly chitinised over the lower half), having a deep sharp transverse groove on thoracic sternite 7 (vs an obsolete ridge) and the posterior margin of the telson concave (convex). The distomesial margin of the propodus of the major cheliped has four groups of 4–10 submarginal setae, two groups on the minor cheliped (vs two groups on both chelipeds). A lateral concavity at the base of the fixed finger is defined by a lower ridge on both chelipeds.

The species was described briefly in footnote number 14 by M. de Saint Laurent alone in de Saint Laurent and Le Loeuff (1979).

Figures

Figure 11.Calliaxina sakaii. Japan, NMV J59763 (male, 6.7 mm): a, telson, uropod; b, thoracic sternite 7; c, pleonal sternite 1 (anterior uppermost); d, pleopod 1; e, f, major cheliped propodus, dactylus (right), mesial, lateral views; g, h, minor cheliped propodus, dactylus (left), mesial, lateral views. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 12. Calliaxina spp. C. bulimba: a, major cheliped, mesial. C. kensleyi: b, c, major cheliped lateral, mesial. C. novaebritanniae: d, major cheliped, mesial; e, minor cheliped, mesial. C. sakaii: f, g, minor cheliped mesial, lateral. Thoracic sterna: h, C. bulimba; i, C. kensleyi; j, C. novaebritanniae. Various scales.