Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T10:46:53.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A new species of Dahmsopottekina (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Huntemanniidae) from the western Mediterranean deep sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2011

Katerina Sevastou*
Affiliation:
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, PO Box 2214, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Paulo Henrique Costa Corgosinho
Affiliation:
Unesco–HidroEX Foundation/Research Department, Rua Tiradentes 325, Centro Frutal-MG, Brazil 8 38200-000
Pedro Martínez Arbizu
Affiliation:
Senckenberg am Meer Wilhelmshaven, Abt. DZMB, Südstrand 44, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: K. Sevastou, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, PO Box 2214, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece email: [email protected]

Abstract

A new species of the genus Dahmsopottekina is described from the Mediterranean Sea. Dahmsopottekina guilvardi sp. nov. was collected from abyssal habitats at a depth range of 2340–2850 m. Like its congeners, the new species has a vermiform habitus, a highly transformed P1 in both sexes and a plough-like rostrum in the female. Dahmsopottekina guilvardi sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeneric species by the combination of a fused basis and endopodite in P1 of both sexes and the absence of an endopodite in P2–P4 of the female. Dahmsopottekina guilvardi sp. nov. is the second record of a harpacticoid species after its congener D. peruana in which the basis and endopodite of a leg other than the P5, namely the P1, are fused. Furthermore, the new species is the only one among Dahmsopottekina species with a 1-segmented P1 exopodite in the male. Similar to its congeners, D. guilvardi sp. nov. is strongly sexually dimorphic. This is evident through the morphology of most of the cephalic appendages and the reduction of P2–P6 in the female. The results of the present study support the observation that Dahmsopottekina species are sparsely distributed and highly endemic. Nevertheless, our results do not agree with the statement of considerably larger females as the length variability between females is greater than between the two sexes. Despite the morphological characters of the species commensurate with a burrowing mode of life, its presence in sediment traps suggests that D. guilvardi sp. nov. is an active ‘swimmer’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baguley, J.G., Montagna, P.A., Lee, W, Hyde, L.J. and Rowe, G.T. (2006) Spatial and bathymetric trends in Harpacticoida (Copepoda) community structure in the northern Gulf of Mexico deep-sea. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 330, 327341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, K.H. (1979) Eidonomie und Taxonomie abyssaler Harpacticoidea (Crustacea, Copepoda) Teil 2. Paramesochridae, Cylindropsyllidae und Cletodidae. (Noodt W. and Schriever G.) Meteor Forschungs-Ergebnisse, Reihe D-Biologie 31, 13.Google Scholar
Coull, B.C. and Bell, S.S. (1979) Perspectives of marine meiofaunal ecology. In Livingston, K.J. (ed.) Ecological processes in coastal and marine systems. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, pp. 189216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahms, H.U. and Pottek, M. (1992) Metahuntemannia Smirnov, 1964 and Talpina gen. nov. (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from the deep-sea of the high Antarctic Weddell Sea with description of eight new species. Microfauna Marina 7, 778.Google Scholar
Danovaro, R., Gambi, C., Lampadariou, N. and Tselepides, A. (2008) Deep-sea nematode biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin: testing for longitudinal, bathymetric and energetic gradients. Ecography 31, 231244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gheerardyn, H. and George, K.H. (2010) New representatives of the genus Ancorabolina George, 2006 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Ancorabolidae) including remarks on ancorabolid phylogeny. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158, 1655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guidi-Guilvard, L.D. (2002) DYFAMED-BENTHOS, a long time-series benthic survey at 2347-m depth in the NW Mediterranean: general introduction. Deep-Sea Research, Part II 49, 21832193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guidi-Guilvard, L.D., Thistle, D., Khripounoff, A. and Gasparini, S. (2009) Dynamics of benthic copepods and other meiofuana in the benthic boundary layer of the deep NW Mediterranean Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series 396, 181195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, G.R.F. and Coull, B.C. (1983) The ecology of marine meiobenthic harpacticoid copepods. Oceanography and Marine Biology: an Annual Review 21, 67175.Google Scholar
Higgins, R.P. and Thiel, H. (1988) Introduction to the study of meiofauna. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Montagna, P.A. (1982) Morphological adaptation in the deep-sea benthic harpacticoid copepod family Cerviniidae. Crustaceana 42, 3743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Por, F.D. (1986) A re-evaluation of the Cletodidae Sars, Lang (Copepoda, Harpacticoida). In Schriever, G., Schminke, H.K. and Shih, C.-T. (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Copepoda, Ottawa, Canada, 13–17 August 1984. Syllogeus 58, 420425.Google Scholar
Schulz, M. and George, K.H. (2010) Ancorabolus chironi sp. nov., the first record of a member of the Ancorabolus-group (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Ancorabolidae) from the Mediterranean. Marine Biodiversity 40, 7993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seifried, S., Plum, C. and Schulz, M. (2007) A new species of Parabradya Lang, 1944 (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Ectinosomatidae) from the abyssal plain of the Angola Basin. Zootaxa 1432, 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snelgrove, P., Blackburn, H.T., Hutchings, P.A., Alongi, D.M., Grassle, F.J., Hummel, H., King, G., Koike, I., Lambshead, P.J.D., Ramsing, N.B. and Solis-Weiss, V. (1997) The importance of marine sediment biodiversity in ecosystem processes. Ambio 26, 578583.Google Scholar
Thistle, D. (2001) Harpacticoid copepods are successful in the softbottom deep sea. Hydrobiologia 453, 255259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar