Labidocera boxshalli sp. nov., a new calanoid copepod (Crustacea; Pontellidae) from the Red Sea
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Labidocera boxshalli sp. nov., a new calanoid copepod (Crustacea; Pontellidae) from the Red Sea Mohsen M. El-Sherbiny & Hiroshi Ueda
Received: 12 March 2009 / Accepted: 21 July 2009 / Published online: 10 March 2010 # Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik 2010
Abstract A pontellid copepod, Labidocera boxshalli sp. nov., is described from the Egyptian coast of the northern Red Sea. This species is most readily distinguished from its congeners by the presence of a mid-dorsal process on the female genital double somite, the female fifth leg exopod terminating in two superimposed processes (the ventral of which is shorter), and by the elongated first exopodal segment of the male right fifth leg carrying a stout, blunttipped process and a small papilla laterally near the base of the thumb that bears one seta. The new species belongs to the L. detruncata species group, which is distributed mainly in the tropical/subtropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific. Keywords Copepoda . Labidocera . Pontellidae . New species . Red Sea
ranging from warm-temperate to tropical. The biogeographical distribution of the genus is intriguing and can be used as a biological indicator of water masses, inshore-offshore boundaries, and divisions between zoogeographical regions (Fleminger 1957, 1967, 1986; Fleminger and Moore 1977; Fleminger et al. 1982; Sherman 1963, 1964; Voronina 1962). Most members of the genus Labidocera are found day and night in the surface layer usually beneath the neuston, to a depth of about 10–15 m. To date, only four species of Labidocera are known to occur in the Red Sea (El-Sherbiny 1997; Halim 1969; Scott 1902): Labidocera acuta (Dana, 1849), L. minuta Giesbrecht, 1889, L. orsinii Giesbrecht, 1889, and L. pavo Giesbrecht, 1889. The present paper describes a new species of Labidocera sampled from the neritic and oceanic waters off Sharm El-Sheikh in the northern Red Sea.
Introduction Material and methods The genus Labidocera was established by Lubbock (1853) for the species L. darwinii Lubbock, 1853, collected off Argentina. The genus is the largest in the family Pontellidae, currently accommodating 49 valid species (Boxshall and Halsey 2004), the majority of them Indo-Pacific in distribution. Most Labidocera species are restricted to waters
M. M. El-Sherbiny (*) Marine Science Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt e-mail: [email protected] H. Ueda Usa Marine Biological Institute, Kochi University, 194 Inoshiri, Usa, Tosa, Kochi 781-1164, Japan
The new species was obtained during a continuous zooplankton sampling programme in the northern Red Sea area around Sharm El-Sheikh (Fig. 1) on 27 June 2008, using a 40 cm diameter plankton net (325µm mesh size). The net was towed horizontally close to the surface for 5–10 min at a speed of 1.5–2 knots. Samples were immediately fixed with 5% formalin in seawater, then placed in 70% alcohol. Sorted Labidocera specimens were examined whole or dissected using a differential interference microscope (Nikon 600E)
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