The Shallow-Water Tanaidacea (Arthropoda: Malacostraca: Peracarida) of the Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia (Other Than the Tanaidae)
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Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69: 1–235 (2012) ISSN 1447-2546 (Print) 1447-2554 (On-line) http://museumvictoria.com.au/About/Books-and-Journals/Journals/Memoirs-of-Museum-Victoria The Shallow-water Tanaidacea (Arthropoda: Malacostraca: Peracarida) of the Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia (other than the Tanaidae) Magdalena Błażewicz-Paszkowycz1, 2 and RogeR n. BambeR3 1 Laboratory of Polar Biology and Oceanobiology, University of Łódź, Banacha 12/16, PL-90-237 Łódź, Poland, ([email protected]) 2 Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia 3 ARTOO Marine Biology Consultants, Ocean Quay Marina, Belvidere Road, Southampton SO14 5QY, United Kingdom, ([email protected]) Abstract Błażewicz-Paszkowycz, M. and Bamber, R.N. 2012. The Shallow-water Tanaidacea (Arthropoda: Malacostraca: Peracarida) of the Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia (other than the Tanaidae). Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69: 1–235. All of the shallow-water tanaidacean taxa (except for species of the family Tanaidae) from material collected between 1964 and 1999 within the Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia, have been analyzed. The material had been collected predominantly by staff from the Museum Victoria, Melbourne. The species treated here are those occurring at depths <200 m; substrata were predominantly sands. A total of 65 species in 43 genera is discussed, of which 44 species, five genera and one subgenus are described as new, although two of the species are not named owing to inadequacy of the material. Only nine of the species are known from elsewhere in Australia, and none from outside Australia. In addition, after examination of more material of its type- (and only) species, the genus Annexos is synonymized with Apseudes, as is Xanthapseudes; Apseudes tuski is moved to Apseudopsis; subgenera of Bunakenia are rejected; the “tribes” Parapseudini and Pakistanapseudini are raised to Subfamily rank; Magniaculeus is synonymized with Saltipedis; intraspecific variation in Kalliapseudes obtusifrons is discussed; the genera of the Pagurapseudinae are resolved, and Pagurapseudes abrucei is transferred to Macrolabrum; the first male for the genus Bathytanais is described; the validity of the genus Araphuroides is discussed, and A. io is returned to Araphura; Protanaissus makrotrichos, P. alvesi and P. floridensis are moved to new genera; the family Tanaopsidae is erected to accommodate the genus Tanaopsis (at least). Keywords Tanaidacea; Apseudomorpha; Tanaidomorpha; Australia; Tasman Sea; Bass Strait Introduction 1980s, coinciding with more rigorous investigations of the smaller taxa in the deep sea, the tropics and the Antarctic, The Tanaidacea is a group of generally small, mainly marine, has begun to improve the understanding of, and the peracarid crustaceans found in benthic habitats from the availability of identification texts for, the group. Valuable shore to the deep sea. A comprehensive review of their biology and ecology has been presented by Larsen (2005). As baselines now exist regionally (e.g. Bird & Holdich, 1989; a rule, they are outnumbered in these habitats by the two Guţu, 1997; Poore, 2002, 2005; Larsen, 2005; Larsen & dominant peracarid groups, the Amphipoda (in shallower Shimomura, 2007b; Bamber, 2008; Edgar, 2008) and globally waters) and the Isopoda (in deeper waters), although they (e.g. Sieg, 1980b; Sieg, 1983a; Blazewicz-Paszkowycz, 2007; appear to be a dominant macrofaunal group on abyssal plains Drumm et al., 2008). where they potentially rival polychaetes in ecological In shallow waters (<500 m), the regions where studies on importance (Błażewicz-Paszkowycz et al. 2012). the Tanaidacea have been most comprehensive have been the Despite this, the group has been understudied historically. northeast Atlantic (Europe) and eastern coasts of the USA, Most species are small in the size-spectrum of macrofauna simply because of the history of effort in these areas. There (commonly only a few mm long, and less than 1 mm wide); has also been a long history of study in the Mediterranean, they also have a hydrophobic cuticle, which results in their although over the last century that has concentrated on adhering to surface water-films during sample-collection. As apseudomorph species (e.g. Guţu, 2002), and more recently in a result, they have been undersampled in general macrofaunal the Antarctic (e.g. Blazewicz-Paszkowycz & Sekulska- collection, and their identification even to genus has posed Nalewajko, 2004; Jóźwiak & Błaźewicz-Paszkowycz, 2007). problems for the non-specialist. Fortunately, an increase in As a general rule, the more comprehensive studies have the number of specialists studying the Tanaidacea since the found that in shallow waters tanaidaceans are less diverse, 2 M. Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & R.N. Bamber but the species have denser populations, when compared 1849, which are being treated elsewhere. Species analyzed with deep waters where diversity can be surprisingly high, are those occurring at depths <200 m (although some of but species are often represented by only a few (or one) these extend to greater depths). Species occurring in adjacent individuals. It was therefore entirely unexpected when waters exclusively below 200 m will also be treated Bamber (2005), surveying the shallow-water (0 to 40 m elsewhere. depth) tanaidacean fauna of one bay in southwestern From the foregoing, it is perhaps now no surprise that Australia over three weeks, found 26 species in 21 genera; analysis of the hundreds of samples collected over that period further, that in quantitative sandy-beach samples of an revealed a total of 65 species in 43 genera, of which 57 species admittedly low-diversity community, the tanaidaceans were and eight genera were new to science. Some of this material the dominant peracarid group, representing 80% of the has already been described (Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & peracarid fauna numerically. Bamber, 2007a, b). The following description of all taxa from Most recent studies in Australian waters (Larsen, 2001; the Bass Strait describes 44 new species, five new genera, one Guţu, 2006; Błażewicz-Paszkowycz & Bamber, 2007a, b; new subgenus and designates one new family. The material is Bamber, 2008; Edgar, 2008) have found an extraordinary held in the collections of Museum Victoria, Melbourne. shallow-water diversity and dominance of the Tanaidacea when compared with other parts of the world. For example, Methods Holdich & Jones (1983), listed 28 species in 16 genera for the A map of the Bass Strait region, showing principal sampling long-studied British waters, this total having risen only to 33 areas mentioned in the text, is given as Figure 1. as a result of subsequent publications (Bird & Holdich, 1989; Sampling techniques, including trawls, dredges, epibenthic Bird, 2002, 2004; Bamber, 2011); Larsen (2005) listed a total sled and Smith-McIntyre grab, are listed in Poore (1986) and of 58 shallow-water (undefined) species from the Gulf of Wilson & Poore (1987); these papers also give sample-station Mexico/ western Caribbean Sea. Furthermore, the large details, including sediments where known. Techniques for majority of the taxa found in Australian waters was new to more recent samples are not known, but none are treated science, and showed both high local diversity and high regional herein as quantitative. distinctness. Bamber (2005) listed 28 species in 21 genera The type material and other studied materials are recorded from Australian waters previously to that study deposited at Museum Victoria (Melbourne, Australia). In the (although two species were missed from that list); a short time case of very numerous species, not all the material is listed later, Bamber (2008) listed a new total of 113 species in 61 below even when studied for confirmation of identification; in genera from Australian waters. Of this impressive number, these cases, primary types are only those specimens only six species have also been recorded outside Australia designated as such herein. In addition, some previously (and four of those are recorded as “cf.” in Australian waters, described material held at the Museum was re-examined to and may yet prove to be distinct). Seventeen genera are resolve issues of identity, and in one case to designate new currently endemic to Australia. One entire family, the type material (neotype). Whiteleggiidae Guţu, 1972, is also endemic [Błażewicz- Dissected material was stained with chlorazol black and Paszkowycz & Bamber (2007b) showed that the only other mounted in glycerine for microscopic examination. Drawings record, of Whiteleggia multicarinata (Whitelegge, 1901) off were done with the aid of a camera lucida. Measurements are South Africa, was in fact a lapsus calami]. At the regional made axially, dorsally on the body and antennae, laterally on level, Bamber (2008) found that, of 29 species discovered in pereopods. Body-proportions are based on length (from Moreton Bay, Queensland, only six species also occurred anterior of rostrum to tip of telson) versus width of pereonite elsewhere in Australia. 2. Morphological terminology is as in Błażewicz-Paszkowycz The present paper brings together the results of four and Bamber (2007b). decades of sampling in the Bass Strait, southeastern Australia. This region lies between the Great Australian Systematics Bight to the west and the Tasman Sea to the east, and between Victoria in the north and Tasmania in the south, extending Order Tanaidacea Dana, 1849 for some 400 km east-to-west and 250 to 300 km north to south (Fig. 1). It is the