Endeis flaccida Calman, 1923

Sabroux, Romain, Hassanin, Alexandre & Corbari, Laure, 2022, Sea spiders (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) collected during the Madibenthos Expedition from Martinique shallow waters, European Journal of Taxonomy 851 (1), pp. 1-141 : 69-70

Endeis flaccida Calman, 1923

Endeis flaccidus Calman, 1923: 295–297 , fig. 17.

Endeis flaccida – Stock 1953a: 300; 1968a: 56, 59 (key); 1970b: 3–4; 1975a: 1085, fig. 58a–b; 1986: 440. — Child 1979: 66; 2009: 819 (list). — Arango 2003b: 2759–2761 , tab. 2, fig. 14. — Bamber 2008: 134. — Veena et al. 2008: tab. 1. — Sabroux et al. 2019b: 1530, tab. 1, fig. 3. — Wang et al. 2020: tab. 1; 2021: 6.

Type material

Syntypes: NHMUK ZOO-1923.10.6.18-23 (not examined). Type locality: Madras, India.

Material examined

MARTINIQUE • 1 ♂; Grande Anse du Diamant; 14°28.6ʹ N, 60°59.4ʹ W; depth 1–2 m; 9 Sep. 2016; st. AD215; MNHN-IU-2016-840/ MK411154 • 1 juv.; same collection data as for preceding; MNHN- IU-2016-559 .

FRENCH GUIANA • 1 ♂; Île Royale / Île du Diable; Passe des Grenadines ; 5°17ʹ27.5388ʺ N, 52°35ʹ15.54ʺ W; depth 6–9 m; st. SC01; MNHN-IU-2013-18550/ KX535406 .

Remarks

This is the first record of this species in Martinique. The material only includes one juvenile and one poorly preserved male with no femur left, which strongly impedes identification. However, DNA barcoding data indicated that they belong to the same species as a specimen from French Guiana, MNHN-IU-2013-18550, GenBank reference KX535406 ( Sabroux et al. 2017) with p-distance = 0. This specimen was successfully identified as Endeis flaccida . The species is recognizable by the intestinal tracts having many branched and unbranched diverticula, and the cement gland pores dispatched in an irregular band along the femur ( Child 1979). Furthermore, in contrast to the otherwise very similar species E. nodosa Hilton, 1942 (known from Pacific islands and Barbados), E. flaccida does not have a femoral ventral projection ( Müller 1992a).

The two specimens were collected at one station on the southern Caribbean coast of Martinique.

Distribution

Widely distributed and probably pantropical, recorded from Pacific Panama, West Atlantic (Florida, Martinique, Panama, French Guiana), the Indian Ocean ( Philippines, Indonesia, India), Taiwan and East Queensland.

Depth range

0– 69 m.