Dignatroides Stock and Vonk, 1990

Malyutina, Marina V. & L. Bruce, Niel, 2019, The first record of Gnathostenetroididea Kussakin, 1967 from Australian waters with description of four new species of Gnathostenetroides Amar, 1957 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Asellota) from the Great Barrier Reef, Zootaxa 4554 (2), pp. 301-350 : 304

Synonymy of Dignatroides Stock and Vonk, 1990 with Caecostenetroides Fresi and Schiecke, 1968

The genus Dignatroides Stock and Vonk, 1990 was established for a single species, D. leptosoma Vonk and Stock, 1990 , from Tenerife, the Canary Islands. This genus appears to have been overlooked since its description, with only one citation of the name by Castelló and Junoy (2007). The authors did not give clear justification as to why they described the new genus for the species. They recognized the similarity of the mandibles of Dignatroides mandibles to those of Gnathostenetroides , both genera having long projections, and merely added that “ numerous details separate the Canarian taxon from its Mediterranean relative”. In the light of the species of Gnathostenetroides described herein, the presence of a mandibular projection seems to be an attribute of a terminal developmental stage of males in the family. Assessing the well-illustrated and detailed figures of Dignatroides leptosoma and another new species described in that paper, Caecostenetroides ruderalis , we can detect no discernible differences at generic level between Dignatroides and Caecostenetroides . The species share all the key characters of Caecostenetroides : eyeless, vermiform habitus, pleotelson shape with rounded posterolateral margins without indentations, and what is the most important—the similar morphology of pleopods 3 and 4 with the rami of similar width, with a one-articled endopod. Therefore Dignatroides Stock and Vonk, 1990 is here placed into junior synonymy with Caecostenetroides Fresi and Schiecke, 1968 , so forming Caecostenetroides leptosoma ( Vonk and Stock, 1990) , comb. nov.