Cymadusa sp.

Thacker, Dimple, Myers, Alan & Trivedi, Jigneshkumar, 2023, A new species and a new record of the amphipod genus Cymadusa Savigny, 1816 (Senticaudata, Ampithoidae) from India, Zootaxa 5297 (3), pp. 393-405 : 402

Cymadusa sp.

( Fig. 9 )

Cymadusa sardenta — Sivaprakasam, 1970: 153, fig. 13.

Not Cymadusa sardenta Oliveira, 1953: 365 , pls 256–26

Cymadusa filosa — Rabindranath, 1972: 173, figs. 8–9.

not Cymadusa filosa Savigny, 1816: 51 , 109, p. IV, figs 1a, b, e, i, o, u.

Rabindranath (1972) recorded C. filosa Savigny (1816) from the Gulf of Mannar, India, but later, Peart (2004) synonymized his material with C. setosa ( Haswell, 1879) . The illustrations and description given by Rabindranath (1972) exhibit several differences with C. setosa Haswell. In Rabindrantath’s material the accessory flagellum of antenna 1 is 3-articulate, not 2-articulate as in C. setosa Haswell ; in the male gnathopod 1, the propodus approaches subrectangular with a substraight posterior margin and with a palm that is clearly delimited from the posterior margin, whereas in C. setosa Haswell , the propodus is subovoid and the palm and posterior margin are continuous and convex; in the male gnathopod 2 the proximal process on the palm is small rounded knob, but in C. setosa Haswell it is a broad flat-topped shelf. These differences along with the much longer and denser setae on the antennae and gnathopods in Rabindrantath’s material, when compared with C. setosa Haswell , indicate the distinctness of the Indian material. We consider that the material described under the name Cymadusa sardenta (Oliveira) by Sivaprakasam (1970) is conspecific with the taxon attributed to Cymadusa filosa by Rabindranath (1972).

The material described by Rabindranath (1972) does not appear to have been deposited in a museum. Rabindranath (1972) states that types are deposited in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, but since he did not consider this material to be a new species, the specimens did not constitute type material. Dr Santanu Mitra has searched for the material in crustacean section of the Zoological Survey of India (formerly Indian Museum), Kolkata but did not find the material of Rabindranath (1972). Dr Biju Kumar, professor at Kerala University has reported that the marine biology laboratory at Kerala University has been closed for decades, so any material deposited there has been lost. For this reason, we consider the material to be lost and we are therefore unable to recognize it with a formal name.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Cymadusa sp. male 8.4 mm. Gulf of Mannar. From Rabindranath (1972).