Haploops antarctica, Bellan-Santini & Dauvin, 2008

Bellan-Santini, Denise & Dauvin, Jean-Claude, 2008, Haploops antarctica n. sp. (Crustacea: Gammaridea: Ampeliscidae): the first species of the genus Haploops from the Southern Antarctic Ocean, Zootaxa 1961 (1), pp. 26-36 : 29-32

Comparison between Haploops antarctica n. sp. and other morphologically similar species: H. descansa , H. oonah and H. abyssorum

A list of 75 morphological characteristics was retained for the comparison of H. antarctica with three other deep-sea species ( Table 1). This list is based on the one used for the phyletic and phylogenetic analyses of the genus Haploops (see Dauvin and Bellan-Santini 1990) and re-used for the description of H. lodo ( Bellan-Santini & Dauvin 2008) . Table 1 gives the status of the 75 characteristics of both species from the Tasman Sea (i.e., H. descansa described from an unique specimen, female 7 mm, holotype) and H. oonah described from one holotype and four other specimens collected all in the same type-locality) which both have a superior corneal lenses and A1<ped.A2 or slightly longer than ped.A2, and the species H. abyssorum described from an unique male collected at a depth of 1,900 m offshore of the Azores ( Chevreux 1908). Another male of this species was collected at 1,003 m offshore of the Faroe Islands during the BIOFAR program (Dauvin 1996). The female of this North-Atlantic species has yet to be described. The characteristics lacking in the Chevreux (1908) description were completed in Table 1 using the BIOFAR specimen.

* observed on the BIOFAR male specimen.

There are differences between the two blind species, H. antarctica and H. abyssorum , especially with respect to the pereopod 7, the length of the basal, the outer surface of dense or sparse basal setae, and the presence of one pair of apical spines and one seta on each lobe of the telson. The total length of the adult was also higher in H. antarctica (10 mm) than in H. abyssorum (6 mm for both males recorded). Though the antenna formula is unknown for H. abyssorum , it is known to be A1>pedA2 and A2> 1/2 body length for H. antarctica .