Nicolenella newtonorum Perina & Camacho, 2025

Perina, Giulia, Camacho, Ana I., Morgan, Liesel, Floeckner, Stephanie & Guzik, Michelle T., 2025, Morphological and molecular description of ten new species of a new genus of Parabathynellidae (Bathynellacea, Crustacea) from the Pilbara region, Western Australia, Zootaxa 5712 (1), pp. 1-103 : 58-61

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5712.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DE340A2B-AF2B-44E5-9C84-63A0D422AE8B
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17885078
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/310187A9-5602-FFF2-FF79-0B32FE28335D
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Nicolenella newtonorum Perina & Camacho
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Nicolenella newtonorum Perina & Camacho , sp. nov.

( Figs. 19 View FIGURE 19 , 20 View FIGURE 20 , Appendix 7G)

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

Material examined. Holotype male. AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Gudai Darri, Pilbara , bore MB12 FDT018 ( stygo net haul), 22°31'23.7085"S, 119°08'39.5088"E, 18 September 2022, F. Rudin, A. Umbrello ( WAMC 82058 - BMR05158 View Materials - BES17314 , permanent slide). GoogleMaps

Paratype AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: 1 female, Gudai Darri, Pilbara , bore MB12 FDT020 ( stygo net haul), 22° 31'23.7066"S, 119° 8'39.5082"E, 3 November 2020, F. Rudin, M. Curran ( WAM C82059 About WAM - BMR03371 View Materials - BES8379 , permanent slide) GoogleMaps .

Diagnosis. AI seven-segmented. AII seven-segmented. Mandibular palp one-segmented formed by one long article and one seta that does not extend beyond the distal end of the pars incisiva. Distal endite of maxillula with seven claws. Three to five articles on exopod of thoracopods. One internal seta on first article of endopod of ThII to VII. Male thoracopod VIII oval, about 1.5 times as long as wide. Sympod of the uropod with non-homonomous spines, with the most proximal one slightly shorter than others; exopod of the uropod similar in length to endopod, with two distal setae. Furca with few small inner spines and two strong distal ones. It differs from all other species of Nicolenella gen. nov. by the combination of characters listed in Supplementary Material Table S2. The sequenced specimens differ from all the other New Genus, Billibathynella and Brevisomabathynella species sequenced by COI = 15.5–25.7% and 12S = 13.9–34.9% ( Table 3, Appendix 2,3).

Description male holotype (WAMC 82058). Body length of 0.8 mm. Body nearly seven times as long as maximum width elongated, almost cylindrical, segments slightly widening and lengthening towards posterior end of body (Appendix 7G).

Antennula ( Fig. 19A View FIGURE 19 ): seven-segmented, over two times longer than AII. The first article is the longest, followed by the second, third and seventh articles, the last two similar in length, fourth and sixth articles similar in length and shorter than previous two, fifth article shortest. Sixth and seventh articles respectively with two and three terminal aesthetascs. Antennular setation as in Fig. 19A View FIGURE 19 .

Antenna ( Fig. 19B View FIGURE 19 ): seven-segmented; the first two articles are similar in length and very short; third and fifth and sixth articles slightly longer and similar in length, fourth and seventh articles are the longest and about twice the length of the first article. Setal formula of AII: 0+0/0+0/1+1/1+1/0+0/0+0/3(1).

Labrum ( Fig. 19C View FIGURE 19 ): flat, free edge with 12 teeth.

Paragnaths: absent.

Mandible ( Fig. 19D View FIGURE 19 ): pars incisiva with four teeth; pars molaris with seven claws, the five distal ones denticulated, and the two most proximal ones joined together; tooth of ventral edge triangular. Mandibular palp with one long article and seta not reaching the distal end of the pars incisiva.

Maxillula ( Fig. 19E View FIGURE 19 ): proximal endite with four unequal claws; distal endite with seven claws: two apical smooth and five denticulated; three smooth, unequal subterminal setae on the outer distal margin.

Maxilla ( Fig. 19F View FIGURE 19 ): four-segmented, setal formula 3, 4, 9, 3.

Thoracopods I to VII ( Figs. 20A–G View FIGURE 20 ): length slightly increasing from thoracopod one to five, thoracopods five and six similar in length, and seven shorter. Epipod present in all thoracopods, about half of the length of the corresponding basipod. All basipods with one distolateral seta shorter than the first article of the endopod. Exopod of ThI and VII shorter than the first three articles of endopod, exopod of ThII and V similar in length to endopod, exopod of ThIII and IV longer than endopod, and exopod of ThVI similar in length to the first three articles of endopod. Exopod of all thoracopods with two very long distal setae on each article. Number of exopodal segments of Ths I to VII 3-4-4-4/5-4-4-3. Endopod four-segmented in all thoracopods. First article slightly shorted than article two and three in Th I, and about half as long as the in ThII to VII, second and third article similar in length, and the fourth article small in all thoracopods; first and second articles bearing an outer plumose seta and one smooth inner seta in all thoracopods, except ThI that bears two inner setae; third article with one small outer distal seta on all thoracopods and one inner seta on ThI ; fourth article very reduced with two strong claws of different length on all thoracopods and one smooth seta. Setal formula of endopods as follow:

ThI 2+1/2+1/1+1/3(1)

ThII to VII 1+1/1+1/0+1/3(1)

Thoracopod VIII ( Fig. 19G, H View FIGURE 19 ): compact, longer than wider. Penial region massive. Outer lobe rounded, reaching the distal end of basipod, and not defined at base in latero-external view. Dentate lobe with three teeth. Inner lobe triangular shorter than outer lobe. Basipod sub-square, without setae. Endopod and exopod small with respectively one small seta and two teeth.

Pleopod I ( Fig. 20H View FIGURE 20 ): one segmented with a long smooth seta.

Uropod ( Fig. 20I View FIGURE 20 ): sympod more than twice as long as the endopod and four and a half times as long as wide, with eight non-homonomous spines, with the most proximal one slightly shorter than others, occupying about half of the length of the sympod. Endopod similar in length to exopod, with two distal strong spines and two inner small ones, two dorsal plumose setae that exceed the tip of the distal spines and two long distal barbed setae. Exopod with five barded setae, two terminal, two dorsal, and one basiventral seta.

Pleotelson ( Fig. 20J View FIGURE 20 ): with one small plumose lateral seta on each side; anal operculum not protruded.

Furca ( Fig. 20J View FIGURE 20 ): rami rectangular, with seven barbed spines, five short proximal ones and two strong and longer distal ones. Two dorsal plumose setae, the inner one short and the outer one reaches beyond the end of the distal spines.

Female paratype differs from male in the small cone-shape ThVIII ( Fig. 19I View FIGURE 19 ).

Variability: variability was observed in body size (male 0.8 and female 1.2 mm), number of teeth on labrum (12–14); number of exopodal articles on the thoracopods (3–5); number of inner setae on first and second article of ThI endopod (1–2); number of spines on sympod of uropod (8–10) and number of spines on furcal rami (7–8).

Distribution and remarks. N. newtonorum sp. nov. has been collected in two bores near the Gudai-Darri area (Fortescue River) ( Fig.6 View FIGURE 6 , 9C View FIGURE 9 ).This species was previously known by Biologic Environmental Surveys as Parabathynellidae sp. “Biologic-PBAT020”. N. newtonorum sp. nov. can be distinguished by the combination of characters listed in Supplementary Material Table S2. It is sister to Parabthynellidae sp. 15 ( N. sp. 15) that could represent N. cassidis comb. nov. ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ) collected in the Ethel Gorge, over 100 km southeast of the Gudai-Darri area ( Fig. 6 View FIGURE 6 ).