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| Gershwinia thailandensis Wutthituntisil, Xiao & Aungtonya, in Wutthituntisil, Xiao, Aungtonya, Pattharakowit, Detsri, Rungraung, Thongbai, Kootsomboon et Zhang, 2023. |
ABSTRACT
Specimens of a species of box jellyfish were collected from the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand. The specimens were characterized by having cuboid bell shape, no gastric phacellae; pedalial bends volcano-shaped, broad pedalial canal where it joints flattened tentacle; inner keel greatly rounded. The frown-shaped rhopaliar niche ostium and presence of rhopaliar horns suggest the most appropriate placement is as a member of the family Carukiidae (Irukandji family), but additionally it is distinct from the currently described genera. Molecular analyses contextualizing these specimens with exemplars of other genera in this family is consistent with evidence from morphological traits suggesting that the lineage is distinct. Here, we present measurements and descriptions of the morphological features, photographs, and phylogenetic relationships of this new genus and species, Gershwinia thailandensis Wutthituntisil, Xiao and Aungtonya.
Key words: morphological study, molecular analysis, Andaman Sea, Gulf of Thailand
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| The type specimens of Gershwinia thailandensis Wutthituntisil, Xiao and Aungtonya gen. et sp. nov.; Holotype: A. PMBC 21325. Paratype: B. PMBC 30177, C. PMBC 30175, D. PMBC 30176, E. PMBC 30174, F. PMBC 21326. Scale bar indicates 3 cm. Tentacle missing in all type specimens. |
SYSTEMATICS
Family Carukiidae Bentlage, Cartwright, Yanagihara, Lewis, Richards, and Collins, 2010
Genus Gershwinia Wutthituntisil, Xiao and Aungtonya gen. nov.
Type species. Gershwinia thailandensis Wutthituntisil, Xiao and Aungtonya n. sp., designated herein. Gender: neuter.
Diagnosis. Carukiidae with a ratio of bell height and diagonal exumbrella width as 1:1, pedalial canal bend volcano-shaped; broad pedalial canal at the joint of flatten tentacle; inner keel rounded; no gastric phacellae.
Etymology: The name is dedicated to Dr. Lisa-Ann Gershwin, in honor of her many contributions to medusozoan taxonomy. A search of the World Register of Marine Species has her down as the taxonomic author of 43 accepted species within Medusozoa. She recognized this new genus when she was lecturing in the WESTPAC Training Workshop on the Identification of Box Jellyfish in the Eastern Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Thailand, held at Phuket Marine Biological Center, Phuket, Thailand, on June 13–17, 2016.
Gershwinia thailandensis Wutthituntisil, Xiao and Aungtonya n. sp.
Nattanon Wutthituntisil, Jie Xiao, Charatsee Aungtonya, Jirapath Pattharakowit, Usawadee Detsri, Purinat Rungraung, Natnaphat Thongbai, Pichai Kootsomboon and Xuelei Zhang. 2023. Gershwinia thailandensis Wutthituntisil, Xiao and Aungtonya: A New Genus and Species of Box Jellyfish (Cubozoa: Carybdeida: Carukiidae) from Thai Waters. Phuket mar. biol. Cent. Res. Bull. 80: 1–19 (2023) DOI: 10.14456/pmbcrb.2023.1 www.dmcr.go.th/detailLib/7790
