Tasmarcturus, Poore, 2013

Poore, Gary C. B., 2013, Rectarcturidae Poore, 2001 rediagnosed with descriptions of new Australian genera and species (Isopoda: Valvifera), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 70, pp. 17-36 : 27

Tasmarcturus gen. nov.

Zoobank LSID. http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

9F13AC3F-F744-45E2-8868-6E34EFB34072

Type species. Tasmarcturus lewisi sp.nov., by original designation.

Diagnosis. Head, pereonites and anterior pereonites with paired blade-like submedian and sublateral tubercles or carinae, all secondarily tuberculate. Antenna 1.7–2 times dorsal length of (head + pereonite 1); article 3 cuboid, as long as or little longer than deep, with ventrolateral teeth; article 4 subspherical, about as long as fused articles (1 + 2); article 5 cylindrical, 2–2.5 times as long as article 4, 5 times as long as wide. Pereopod 2 propodus palm convex, denticulate; (dactylus body + unguis) 3 times as long as propodus; unguis setiform, as long as or little longer than dactylus body. Pereopod 3 similar to pereopod 2, unguis shorter. Male pleopod 1 exopod groove ending obliquely on truncate distolateral lobe, not extending beyond distomesial seta-bearing lamina. Male pleopod 1 endopod about as long as exopod length. Oostegites 5 a pair of adjacent oval discs.

Etymology. For Abel Tasman (1603–1659), the first European to reach the Australian state, Tasmania, and Arcturus , generic stem.

Composition. Tasmarcturus erinae sp. nov., T. jamesi sp. nov., T. simplicissimus ( Whitelegge, 1904) .

Distribution. Southern Qld to Bass Strait, eastern Australia.

Remarks. Tasmarcturus comprises three Australian species, two new and one described as a species of Arcturus in 1904. All are common on the southeastern Australian shelf. The genus shares with Galathearcturus a compact antenna and elongate dactylus with setiform unguis on pereopods 2–4, but differs in having far more elaborate dorsal sculpture. The termination of the exopodal groove on the male pleopod 1 is similar to that in Rectarcturus ; the structure is unknown in Galathearcturus . Sculpture can be used to differentiate the three species.