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| Heteromysis octopodis Wittmann & Griffiths, 2017 |
Abstract
Faunistic studies in sublittoral and littoral marine habitats on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, have yielded three new species belonging to the genus Heteromysis, subgenus Heteromysis: H. cancelli sp. n. associated with the diogenid hermit crab Cancellus macrothrix Stebbing, 1924, and H. fosteri sp. n. extracted from ‘empty’ urchin and gastropod shells. The first documented mysid-cephalopod association is reported for H. octopodis sp. n. which was found in dens occupied by Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797, but was also captured from tide pools. The three new species differ from previously known E. Atlantic species, among other characters, by a single spine on the endopods of uropods in combination with large cornea and absence of median sternal processes on thoracic somites. They are also characterized by a white stripe along the dorso-lateral terminal margin of the eyestalks in living specimens. The new species appear quite similar to each other, but are distinguished by different depths of the telson cleft, different distributions of spines on the lateral margins of the telson, different numbers of segments on thoracic endopod 4, and by differently modified setae on the carpus of the third thoracic endopod, as well as on the carpopropodus of the fourth endopod. An updated key to the species of Heteromysis known from the E. Atlantic is given.
Keywords: Crustacea, hermit crab association, octopus association, ectocommensals, taxonomy, key to species, SE. Atlantic
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| A subadult female of Heteromysis octopodis sp. n. with 11 mm body length from tide pool B multi-species association inside den in 3 m depth, occupied by Octopus vulgaris, to the right with the crab Guinusia chabrus; upper arrow points to a mysid school of what we assume to be H. octopodis sp. n., lower arrow to a different but undetermined mysid species. A, B from Miller’s Point, Cape Peninsula, South Africa; in situ images by Craig Foster B image is taken of the same octopus den from which the samples were collected, but on a different date. |
Karl J. Wittmann and Charles L. Griffiths. 2017. Three New Species of Heteromysis (Mysida, Mysidae, Heteromysini) from the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, with first documentation of a mysid-cephalopod association. ZooKeys. 685; 15-47. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.685.13890
