Hemiproto wigleyi McCain, 1968

Paz-Ríos, Carlos E., Guerra-García, José M. & Ardisson, Pedro-Luis, 2014, REVIEW ARTICLE Caprellids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from the Gulf of Mexico, with observations on Deutella mayeri, redescription of Metaprotella hummelincki, a taxonomic key and zoogeographical comments, Journal of Natural History 48 (41 - 42), pp. 2517-2578 : 2558-2559

Hemiproto wigleyi McCain, 1968

( Figure 21 )

Hemiproto wigleyi McCain, 1968: 65–68 , figs 31, 32c–e. McCain and Steinberg, 1970: 51. Ortiz et al., 2002, fig. 33. Diaz et al., 2005: 3, 7–8, 24, fig. 15. Winfield, Escobar-Briones, et al., 2007: 50, fig. 19.

Material examined

Station 31, one male (used for figures), CYMX-54-PY.

Type locality

Coche Island , Venezuela .

Distribution

Southeastern Florida ( McCain 1968); California ( Watling 1997); Gulf of Mexico ( Winfield et al. 2006); Caribbean Sea ( McCain 1968; Diaz et al. 2005; Ortiz et al. 2006; Ortiz and Lalana 2010).

Records in the Gulf of Mexico

CUB: La Habana ( Ortiz et al. 2006). MEX: Campeche Sound and Veracruz continental shelf ( Winfield et al. 2006); Northwestern Yucatan Shelf (present study).

Habitat

Hemiproto wigleyi has been collected from Thalassia testudinum , Halimeda opuntia ( Diaz et al. 2005) , washed algae ( Ortiz et al. 2006), and soft bottoms ( Winfield et al. 2006; present study). The depth range reported is 25–76 m ( Winfield et al. 2006; Winfield and Escobar-Briones 2008; LeCroy et al. 2009).

Remarks

Monotypic genus. The main characteristics to identify this species are: molar absent; mandibular palp 3-articulate; pereopods 3 and 4, 6-articulate; pereopod 5, 5-articulate; abdomen of male with two pairs of small 1-articulate appendages, only one pair in females ( McCain 1968). The size of the specimen examined in the present study is 2.63 mm, which is roughly three times smaller than the male specimen examined by McCain (1968), with a size of 7.5 mm. That size represents a juvenile because in addition to the small size, the number of articles in antennae and the number of grasping spines on propodus of gnathopod 1 and 2 and propodus of pereopod 3 and 4 are fewer, compared with the description in McCain (1968).

Figures

Figure 21. Hemiproto wigleyi McCain, 1968. Yucatan, Mexico; CYMX-54-CY. Scale bar for male: 0.5 mm; scale bar for Gn1, Gn2 and P4: 0.1 mm.