Anoplodactylus tubiferus (Haswell, 1884)

Arango, Claudia P., 2003, Sea spiders (Pycnogonida, Arthropoda) from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: new species, new records and ecological annotations, Journal of Natural History 37 (22), pp. 2723-2772 : 2755-2757

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930210158771
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5460422
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F10B8791-FFB6-FF91-2605-145DF1D67865
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Anoplodactylus tubiferus (Haswell, 1884)
status

Treatment

Anoplodactylus tubiferus (Haswell, 1884) View in CoL

Phoxichilidium tubiferum Haswell, 1884: 1032 , pl. 57, figures 1–5.

Anoplodactylus tubiferus: Cole, 1904: 288 View in CoL ; Loman, 1908: 72; Flynn, 1919a: 79–81, pl. 10, figures 12–14; Williams, 1941: 35; Clark, 1963: 49; Staples, 1982: 457, figure 2C–F; Child, 1988a: 61; Müller, 1989: 281, figures 15–20; Nakamura and Child, 1991: 32; Stock, 1991: 224; 1994: 67.

Material examined. Cleveland Bay , 15 m, dredged,? September 1999, three X, one W with eggs, two juveniles (coll. Cruz) .

Description. Trunk length 1.84 mm, width 1.26 mm, unsegmented, smooth, crurigers separated by almost twice their diameter, twice longer than wide, fine spines distally; ocular tubercle extremely tall (0.64 mm), slender, erect; abdomen subequal to ocular tubercle, slightly inclined downwards from the base; proboscis long, placed at 45°, with minor middle-constriction. Chelifores very long, with long dorsal setae and spinules; small chelae, fingers well curved and smooth. Ovigers sixsegmented, first and second segments thicker, third segment the longest, with typical proximal constriction. Legs slender, not long, longer spines distally on femur and tibiae; cement gland twice longer than the segment diameter, protruding vertically from femur; propodus half the length of second tibia, one large heel spine and small uniform sole spines. Main claw almost as long as propodus, minute auxiliaries on each side of the base of the claw.

Distribution. This long-known species was first reported from Queensland, Australia. It has also been collected in the north of New South Wales according to museum specimens at the AM. It is distributed from the Australian coasts to the Indo-west Pacific, Madagascar, the Persian Gulf, the Philippines and Japan. Known from a wide a range of depths from 2 to 235 m.

Remarks. Males are fairly easy to identify due to their extremely long cement gland tube. The unsegmented pattern of the trunk and the extremely tall ocular tubercle and abdomen also help to discriminate the species.