Anoplodactylus sp. 8

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 : 103-106

Anoplodactylus sp. 8

Fig. 27

Anoplodactylus sp. 8 – Sabroux et al. 2019b: tab. 1, fig. 3.

Material examined

MARTINIQUE • 1 ♀; Canal de Ste Lucie ; 14°23.1ʹ N, 60°50.2ʹ W; depth 65 m; 11 Sep. 2016; st. AD224; MNHN-IU-2016-539/ MK411113 • 1 ♀; Baie de St-Pierre ; 14°45.1ʹ N, 61°11ʹ W; depth 17 m; 4 Oct. 2016; st. AB388; MNHN-IU-2016-1060/ MK411039 .

Remarks

These two specimens were collected on the Caribbean coast and southern Martinique; only females are available, preventing us from providing a complete description. The specimens differ from other species of Anoplodactylus by the combination of the following characters: body stout; ocular tubercle low, rounded; trunk without dorsomedian ornamentation; lateral processes well separated by less than their own diameter, and without ornamentation; proboscis barrel-shaped, truncated; legs stout; no propodal lamina; auxillary claw minute. The specimens strongly resemble A. pycnosoma ( Helfer, 1938) , a species only recorded in the Indo-Pacific ( Bamber 2000), from which it differs by the absence of angulate distal projections on the proboscis; it also differs from A. dentimanus Stock, 1979 from the West Indies ( Stock 1979) by the greater space between the lateral processes, the more elongate chela palms and the truncated proboscis end. Finally, the specimens are similar to Anoplodactylus nanus Krapp, Koçak & Katagan, 2008 from the Eastern Mediterranean ( Krapp et al. 2008), except that their low dorsodistal femoral tubercles carry one seta.

Depth range

17– 65 m.

Figures

Fig. 27. Anoplodactylus sp. 8, ♀, MNHN-IU-2016-1060. A. Body, dorsal view. B. Body, lateral view (same scale as A). C. Third leg. D. Tarsus and propodus of third leg. E. Chela.