Pelagic mysids from the warm-temperate to subtropical NE Atlantic, with a redescription of Leptomysis capensis Illig, 1906 (Mysida, Mysidae)

Abstract

Pelagic material from the cruises Salvajes’2000, TFMCBM/Canarias, and ConAfrica (CTM2004-023119/MAR) was used to complement the knowledge of mysid faunas in waters off NE Atlantic islands. Anchialina typica typica and Haplostylus normani are first recorded for the Canary Islands; first records of A. t. typica as well as Euchaetomera intermedia are reported for the Selvagens Islands. Important shifts of known distribution limits were noted for Erythrops peterdohrni from the Gulf of Naples to the Canary Archipelago, for Longithorax alicei from the Canaries to the Selvagens Islands, and for Leptomysis capensis from 31° S to 28o N along the Atlantic coast of Africa (previous record for 1° S not acknowledged). L. capensis is redescribed using British Museum material taken near the type locality (off Cape Town). The most important previously unknown features pertain to adult morphology: notched anterior margin of the carapace in both sexes and sexually dimorphic terminal spines on the telson. These features, together with hispid cuticle and peculiar segmentation patterns of the fourth pleopods in males, indicate that this species is a closely related southern vicariant of the European to NW African species L. gracilis.