ON A NEW DEEP-SEA CUMACEA (CRUSTACEA) FROM ARGENTINA, AND THE TAXONOMIC STATUS OF Platytyphlops orbicularis (CALMAN, 1905)

ROCCATAGLIATA, DANIEL; DOTI, BRENDA L.; PEREIRA, EMANUEL

Santos

Congreso; XI Congresso Brasileiro sobre Crustáceos (CBC) / The Crustacean Society (TCS) Summer Meeting; 2022

Sociedade Brasileira de Carcinologia y The Crustacean Society

Calman (1905) described the cumacean Platyaspis orbicularis (currently in the genus Platytyphlops) based on a single immature specimen collected on West Ireland at 699 m depth, which lacks the abdomen and most of the thoracic segments. A few years later, Calman (1912) published a full description of a female with developing oostegites from off the east coast of USA, which he believed was conspecific with the incomplete specimen that he had described before. Lastly, this species was cited from Faroes Islands (810 m) and Biscay Bay (470-1739 m). Herein, a new species of Platytyphlops has been reported from off the coast of Buenos Aires Province at 1011-1712 m depth, based on material collected by the Atlantis II 60 survey (1971) and the Talud I Argentine expedition (2012). Specimens from off the coast of Ireland and Biscay Bay were also examined. The new species reported here differs from the specimens from Ireland/Biscay Bay (characters between parentheses) as follows: (1) carapace submedian carinae absent (submedian carinae present); (2) pereopod 5 as long as pereonite 5 in adults (much shorter than pereonite 5); (3) antennule main flagellum with 5-6 articles plus a minute distal one in adult males (with 4 articles plus a minute distal one); (4) adult total length ~17 mm ( ~10 mm). In addition, the specimens from Argentina herein reported correspond quite well with Calman?s 1912 description. This fact suggests that the two specimens described by Calman from the North Atlantic (Ireland and USA, respectively) probably do not belong to the same species.