Arenopontia pontica Apostolov, 1969

Sak, Serdar, Karaytuğ, Süphan & Huys, Rony, 2024, A revision of the genus Arenopontia Kunz, 1937 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Arenopontiidae), including the description of five new species, Zootaxa 5433 (1), pp. 1-50 : 40

Arenopontia pontica Apostolov, 1969

Original description. Apostolov (1969): 125–127, Abb. 36–45.

Type locality. Bulgaria, south of Lozenetz , Düni Beach ; 5 m from low-tide mark.

Body length. 420 μm (♀), 500 μm (♂).

Remarks. Sak et al. (2008) discussed the numerous inconsistencies in Apostolov’s (1969) description of A. pontica . If correct, several features that were illustrated (e.g. bisetose antennary exopod; P1 exp-2 with outer spine; P2–P3 exp-2 with inner seta) would exclude the species from the Arenopontiidae . Apostolov (1969) recognized a close relationship with A. subterranea , A. indica and A. sp. sensu Griga (1964) but according to Sak et al. (2008) it is impossible to make any positive statement on the identity and possible relationships of A. pontica other than that it can be assigned to the genus Arenopontia . Pending redescription, they considered it a species inquirenda which is confirmed here. There is no evidence to substantiate conspecificity with A. subterranea as claimed by Marinov (1971) and Apostolov (1973) or to regard it as a subspecies of the latter ( Apostolov, 1973). It should also be noted that Apostolov’s (1969) specimens are remarkably large for the genus.