Ozagathus, Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber, 2012

Błażewicz-Paszkowycz, M. & Bamber, R. N., 2012, The Shallow-water Tanaidacea (Arthropoda: Malacostraca: Peracarida) of the Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia (other than the Tanaidae), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69, pp. 1-235 : 201

Genus Ozagathus gen. nov.

Diagnosis. Agathotanaid with three-articled antennule, apparent five-articled antenna; pereonites wider medially, pleon slightly narrower than pereon; mandibular molar membranous and directed proximally, lacinia mobilis reduced to apophysis; labium with prominent rounded mediodistal processes; maxilliped bases and endites naked; cheliped without pseudocoxa; pereopod coxae unfused; anterior pereopods with carpal spines; dactyli and ungues of posterior pereopods not fused, their carpi with two spines; uropod exopod a fused process on basis, endopod one-segmented, uropods held beneath pleotelson. Female without pleopods. Male with slightly more robust antennule and with poorlydeveloped pleopods.

Type species. Ozagathus watharongus sp. nov. by monotypy.

Etymology. From “Oz”, colloquial slang for “ Australia ”, and “agathus” derived from the prefix to the Family name (male).

Remarks. The new species described below shows all the general features of an agathonataid, but is somewhat intermediate between the previously recognized genera, having the three-articled antennule and reduced uropods typical of Agathotanais Hansen, 1913 , but an apparently five-articled antenna more typical of Paragathotanais . The mouthparts are generally within the range of morphology shown by the Family, although the setulose rounded distal processes on the labium are presently characteristic of Ozagathus gen. nov. Whether the tuberculation of the cheliped, a feature not previously described for an agathotanaid, is a generic character is impossible to say at present, particularly in the light of the variable presence of this feature in some genera of the Tanaellidae (see above).