Chauliopleona Dojiri & Sieg, 1997

Larsen, Kim & Shimomura, Michitaka, 2007, Tanaidacea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from Japan. II. Tanaidomorpha from the East China Sea, the West Pacific Ocean and the Nansei Islands, Zootaxa 1464, pp. 1-43 : 32-33

Genus Chauliopleona Dojiri & Sieg, 1997

Leptognathia group a, subdivision a Hansen, 1913 Chauliopleona Dojiri & Sieg, 1997

Diagnosis. Female (Modified from Larsen 2005). Eyes and eye-lobes absent. Pleon short (including pleotelson only 0.2 times total body length). Pleonite 5 with conspicuous, posterior-directed spine, reaching under the pleotelson. Antennule with four articles. Antenna with five–seven articles (occasionally with fusion line). Mandibular molar pointed. Maxillule with seven–nine spiniform terminal setae, some of which are often setulose. Maxilla elongate and often with distal setules. Carapace almost completely surrounding the cephalothorax and including the ventral part of the cheliped attachment point. Cheliped attached via lateral sclerite. Pereopods 1–3 with coxa. Pereopod 1 merus with one long, spiniform seta reaching carpus. Pereopods 4–6 without coxa; dactylus and unguis not fused into a claw, propodus often serrated, dactylus with two parallel rows of spinules. Pleopods present and biramous, albeit often reduced. Uropod biramous, both endo- and exopod bi-articulate; exopod shorter than first endopod article.

Male: antennule with five articles.

Type species: Chauliopleona dentata Dojiri & Sieg, 1997 .

Gender: Feminine.

Remarks. Most diagnostic characters appear stable at this time. The characters separating the species include: (1) antennule length/width ratio, (2) length of cheliped carpus relative to that of propodus including fixed finger, (3) dactylus denticulations, and (4) pereopod 1 armament. The number of antennal articles is a dubious character, owing to the frequent presence of a fusion line and to the difficulties in determining whether the small proximal ‘article’ is really an article, or part of the cephalothorax itself, or muscle-tissue torn out from the cephalothorax during dissection. This genus is easily recognizable by the ventral, posteriorly directed spine on pleonite 5 that protrudes under the pleotelson. A key to the genus is given by Guerrero- Kommritz (2005).

Larsen & Wilson (2002) excluded Chauliopleona from their phylogenetic analysis of the Paratanaoidea owing to the poor description and definition of the genus ( Dojiri & Sieg, 1997). Although no phylogenetic analyses have been conducted in this study, it is likely that this genus belong to the Leptognathiidae .