A new species of Aciconula (Amphipoda, Senticauda, Caprellidae) from Sultan Iskandar Marine Park, Malaysia.

Jacqueline H.C Lim,B.H Ross Othman,B Abdul Rahim Azman

doi:10.3897/zookeys.859.33284

Abstract

A new species of caprellid, Aciconulatinggiensis (Amphipoda, Senticaudata, Caprellidae) was discovered from Pulau Tinggi, Sultan Iskandar Marine Park (SIMP), South China Sea, Malaysia. The new Malaysian species can be distinguished from the other Aciconula species by the combination of the following characters: 1. the presence of a very small suture between head and pereonite 1; 2. antenna 1 flagellum with 4 articles; 3. inner lobe of lower lip unilobed; 4. gnathopod 2 palm of propodus with a large proximal projection (stretching from the proximal margin of the palm to nearly mid-way of palm); 5. pereopods 3–4 with 2 articles (article 1 subrectangular, article 2 conical or tapering at the tip with 1 plumose seta and 2 normal setae) and; 6. pereopod 5 covered with relatively dense and long setae. An updated identification key for the five known species in the genus, including information on the respective geographical distribution and habitat, is presented.

Highlights

The amphipod genus Aciconula was established by Mayer (1903) with A. miranda Mayer, 1903 as its type species
The exact diagnostic characteristics of this genus were unclear because the types described by Mayer (1903) for this genus were both females and only figures of the whole body, pereopod 3, pereopod 4, pereopod 5, mandibular palp article 3 and maxilliped were drawn
The caprellids examined in this study were collected from an artificial reef of Kampung Pasir Panjang, Pulau Tinggi, Sultan Iskandar Marine Park (SIMP) at 9–11 m water depth (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

The amphipod genus Aciconula was established by Mayer (1903) with A. miranda Mayer, 1903 as its type species. The exact diagnostic characteristics of this genus were unclear because the types described by Mayer (1903) for this genus were both females (that were collected from three different localities: Singapore, Malaysia and Koh Krau, Thailand) and only figures of the whole body, pereopod 3, pereopod 4, pereopod 5, mandibular palp article 3 and maxilliped were drawn. Mayer (1912) described a male but the abdomen and mouthparts were not included. General morphology of the male specimen agrees well with the type and the rest of the appendages such as pereopods 3 to 7 are similar to the female. The present paper deals with the detailed description of this new species; an updated identification key to all the known Aciconula species is given

Material and methods

Laboratory procedures