Platylicoa pectinis (Bamber, 1999)

Bamber, Roger N., 2013, Tanaidaceans from Brunei, IV. The Families Kalliapseudidae, Pagurapseudopsidae, Parapseudidae and Apseudidae (Crustacea: Peracarida: Tanaidacea: Apseudomorpha), with descriptions of a new genus and six new species, Zootaxa 3734 (4), pp. 401-441 : 425

Platylicoa pectinis (Bamber, 1999)

Pakistanapseudes pectinis Bamber 1999 , 187–191, figs 11–13; Bamber & Sheader 2005, 296–298, Fig. 14 . Platylicoa pectinis Guţu 2006 , 264–265; Guţu 2008, 53–54.

Material examined: 9♀♀ (one brooding), 2 subadult ♂♂, 05°22′10"N 111°27′00"E, 67 m depth, sand.

Remarks: Guţu (2006) transferred Pakistanapseudes pectinis Bamber, 1999 to his new genus Platylicoa as the generotype, and included with it his newly-described species Platylicoa setosa Guţu, 2006 (from the Coral Sea, Australia, at 100–180 m depth). These species are accepted as being inappropriate to Pakistanapseudes , as they do not have the elongate pleonites characteristic of that genus.

However, there were immediately evident problems with the genus Platylicoa . Diagnostic features of the genus (Guţu 2006; 2008) include a dorsal row of setae on pleonite 1 (present in P. setosa —figured but not described in Guţu 2006—but absent in the generotype, P. pectinis ), the presence of long plumose setae along both margins of the basis of pereopod 6 (present in P. setosa but absent in P. pectinis according to Bamber & Sheader 2005), and the maxilliped basis with an inner-distal spine (unknown for P. setosa as the mouthparts were “unstudied”—Guţu 2006).

That the first two diagnostic features were absent in the generotype suggested that these two species are not congeneric, which could leave P. setosa without a generic appellation. It may have been argued further that the two species should perhaps be in separate subfamilies, as the lack of a dorsal setal row on pleonite 1 is characteristic of the subfamily Pakistanapseudinae , while the presence of such a row of setae together with the plumose basis setae on pereopod 6 are features typical of the Parapseudinae Guţu 1981 .

The present material of Platylicoa pectinis , while still without a dorsal row of setae on pleonite 1, does show variation in the setation of pereopod 6; two specimens had these pereopods, one showing no plumose setae on the basis, the other with a row of plumose setae along the dorsal margin. It is thus accepted that this feature is intraspecifically variable in the genus (see also the new species described below), while the dorsal row of setae on pleonite 1 shows inter-specific variation within the genus.

Figures

FIGURE 14. Platylicoa angela sp. nov.: A, labrum; B, left mandible; C, mandibular palp; D, labial palp; E, maxillule; F, maxilla; G, maxilliped; H, maxilliped endite; I, epignath. Scale line = 0.2 mm.