Maera schieckei Karaman and Ruffo, 1971

Lo Brutto, Sabrina & Iaciofano, Davide, 2020, New records of amphipod crustaceans along the Israeli Mediterranean coast, including a rare Mediterranean endemic species, Maera schieckei Karaman & Ruffo, 1971, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 53864-53864 : 53864

Maera schieckei Karaman and Ruffo, 1971

Maera schieckei described in Karaman and Ruffo 1971: p. 132, fig. 11-13

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MZPA-AMPH-0027 ; recordedBy: S. Piraino; sex: 5 females; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Maeraschieckei Karaman and Ruffo, 1971; order: Amphipoda; family: Maeridae; subgenus: Maera; specificEpithet: schieckei; scientificNameAuthorship: Karaman and Ruffo, 1971; Location: locationID: Rosh Hanikra; waterBody: Mediterranean Sea; country: Israel; verbatimCoordinateSystem: 33°04'20.35''N, 35°05'42.10''E; Event: eventDate: 2009 June; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MZPA-AMPH-0027 ; recordedBy: S. Piraino; sex: 2 females; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Maeraschieckei Karaman and Ruffo, 1971; order: Amphipoda; family: Maeridae; subgenus: Maera; specificEpithet: schieckei; scientificNameAuthorship: Karaman and Ruffo, 1971; Location: locationID: Haifa; waterBody: Mediterranean Sea; country: Israel; verbatimCoordinateSystem: 32°48'47.42''N, 34°57'16.15''E; Event: eventDate: 2009 June; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Body: Body slender, up to 6 mm long (Fig. 2 A). Head: Lateral cephalic lobes rounded, antennal sinus shallow; eyes subrounded. Antenna 1 length about 1/2 body, peduncle articles 1-2 subequal, article 3 shorter; flagellum with 9 articles, shorter than peduncle; accessory flagellum with 5 articles. Antenna 2, article 3 of peduncle 2 × as long as broad, article 4 longer than 5, flagellum with 5-6 articles; antennal gland cone reaching tip of peduncle article 3. Mandibular palp article 1 with distal tooth, article 2 longer than 3. Pereon: Coxae 1-4 short, coxa 1 with anterodistal corner acutely produced. Gnathopod 1 carpus longer than propodus, propodus ovate; palm oblique, convex; dactylus with 1 anterior seta. Gnathopod 2 carpus short, propodus large, subtrapezoidal, twice as long as broad; palm with a median excavation (in male, palm slightly oblique, with deep medial excavation flanked by 2 strong teeth, defined by 2 spines and a small tooth; dactylus stout, with row of setae on anterior margin (Fig. 2 B, D). Peraeopods 3-4 slender. Peraeopods 5-7 relatively slender, basis almost 2 × as long as broad, posterodistal lobe present; dactylus half-length of propodus, nail short, anterior margin with 1-3 minute teeth. Pleon: Epimeral plates 1-2 with small posterodistal tooth. Epimeral plate 3 postero-distal corner produced with several teeth (Fig. 2 C). Uropod 1 peduncle with 1 ventro-facial spine, rami subequal. Uropod 2 shorter than uropod 1, rami subequal. Uropod 3 stout, not exceeding tip of uropod 1, peduncle as long as rami; rami subequal, 1-articulate with distal spines as long as rami. Telson nearly as long as broad, deeply cleft. Telson lobes bifurcate with 2 long distal spines (of unequal length) and 3 plumose setae.

Distribution

Mediterranean. Italy: Tyrrhenian Sea, Gulf of Naples ( Karaman and Ruffo 1971). Spain: Menorca Channel ( Junoy and Viéitez 2008). Algeria: Bay of Oran ( Bakalem et al. 2014). Italy: Gulf of Castellammare ( Lo Brutto 1991); Turkey: Bay of Izmir ( Kocataş and Katağan 1978, Çinar et al. 2006); Anamur Bay ( Bakir and Katağan 2014); Israel: Haifa Bay (Fig. 3 ). General: Mediterranean endemic.

Notes

Five species of Maera have been recorded in the Mediterranean Sea: M. grossimana (Montagu, 1808), M. hirondellei Chevreux, 1900, M. pachytelson Karaman & Ruffo, 1971, M. schieckei and M. sodalis Karaman & Ruffo, 1971 (accessed at http://www.marinespecies.org/amphipoda on 05-04-2020). Maera schieckei is distinguished from congeneric Mediterranean species by the presence of a median U-shaped excavation in the palm of the second gnathopods and several teeth on the posterodistal corner of third epimeral plate (character not always appreciable) (Fig. 2 B, C, D). The genus Maera , erected by Leach (1814), is one of the oldest amphipod genera, which has undergone extensive revision, throughout which Maera schieckei has maintained its original name and taxonomic position.

The specimens described in this study corresponds to the morphology of Maera schieckei as described by Karaman and Ruffo 1971 and available also in Ruffo (1982).

Figures

Figure 2. Maera schieckei Karaman & Ruffo, 1971; A. Lateral habitus; B. Second gnathopod female; C. Illustration of the third epimeral plate, with focus on the postero-distal corner teeth; D. Illustration of the second gnathopod male (Gn 2 male) and female (Gn 2 female).

Figure 3. Records of Maera schieckei in the Mediterranean Sea pointed out in the map below. Details of the records in the Table above, from the following references: Bakalem et al. 2014, Bakir and Katagan 2014, Cinar et al. 2006, Junoy and Vieitez 2008, Karaman and Ruffo 1971, Kocatas and Katagan 1978, Lo Brutto 1991.