Parakonarus corrigendum, Bamber, 2013

BAMBER, ROGER N, 2013, A re-assessment of Konarus Bamber, 2006 and sympatric leptocheliids from Australasia, and of Pseudoleptochelia Lang, 1973 (Crustacea: Peracarida: Tanaidacea), Zootaxa 3694 (1), pp. 1-39 : 28

Parakonarus corrigendum sp. nov.

Pseudoleptochelia occiporta Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber, 2012, p. 124 , Figs 79E, 82 (male only) non- Pseudoleptochelia occiporta Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber, 2012 sensu stricto (= Leptochelia occiporta ).

Material: One male ( J58468 ), holotype, Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia, station 81-T-1 162, 40º09.2′S 147º31.9′E, 51 m depth, shelly sand, 14 Nov 1981, coll. R. Wilson, RV Tangaroa .

Etymology. From the Latin—an error and correction in a manuscript (noun in apposition).

Remarks. Leptochelia occiporta ( Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber, 2012) was attributed originally to Pseudoleptochelia on the basis of this single male which was collected with 49 females of L. occiporta in the Bass Strait. The present species was thus described and well-figured by Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber (2012) as the male of “ P.” occiporta . From the present study, it is clear that the male is not conspecific with the females. To date, the only konariin females have been recorded in the extensive Bass Strait collections are of Bassoleptochelia verro , but the males of that species are quite distinct from the present taxon.

With a mid-ventral carpal apophysis but no propodal ventral apophysis on the cheliped, an unguis longer than the dactylus on pereopod 1, and the dactyli of the posterior pereopods with distal setules, P. corrigendum sp. nov. accords with the generic diagnosis. It also shows a tuft of seven ventral setae on the cheliped merus. Unlike the other species of Parakonarus , the present species has two segments in the uropod exopod; however, increased segmentation of uropod rami from one in the female to two in the male is known in some species in other tanaidomorphan genera (e.g. Akanthophoreus Sieg, 1986 ; Pseudotanais Sars, 1882 ); males of both Parakonarus fairgo and P. juliae show incipient articulation of the uropod exopod. Other than this feature, and the presence of a distal spine on the fixed finger of the chela of its distinctly more-slender cheliped, P. corrigendum shows much similarity to the male of P. fairgo , although being only about half the size of that species.