PETRARCA OKADAI, A NEW CRUSTACEAN (MAXILLOPODA: ASCOTHORACICA) FROM THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, THE FIRST SHALLOW-WATER RECORD OF THE GENUS
1981; Oxford University Press; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1163/1937240x81x00195
ISSN1937-240X
Autores Tópico(s)Marine Biology and Ecology Research
ResumoPetrarca okadai, new species, an ascothoracican crustacean from Lizard Island, Australia, endosymbiotic within the solitary coral Heteropsammia michelina Milne-Edwards, is described. It is compared to its only described congener, P. bathyactidis Fowler. Discussions of internal anatomy, sexuality, and ecology are included. The biogeographic importance of this new species, in light of its shallow habitat and other recent finds of Petrarca-infested corals, is notable. Ascothoracica is a small group of maxillopodan crustaceans, variously considered an order within the Cirripedia or an independent subclass, whose members are parasites or commensals of various coelenterates and echinoderms. The most recent reviews are those of Newman et al. (1969) and Wagin (1976). Petrarca Fowler, the sole genus in the family Petrarcidae, has previously included a single described species, P. bathyactidis Fowler, 1889 (refigured and reinterpreted by Okada, 1938), an endosymbiont of the fungiid coral Fungiacyathus (=Bathyactis) symmetricus (Pourtales) or F. marenzelleri (Vaughan) (see Cairns, 1979, for explanation of taxonomic confusion within this genus), from a depth of 4,200 m off Japan. An unnamed species from 835-1,000 m off the Azores is also known (Lopez, 1974). It was collected during the Jean Charcot Biacores Expedition in 1971 and inhabits porous galls on the dendrophylliid coral Enallopsammia rostrata (Pourtales). A photograph of an infested coral has been published (Cairns, 1979, PI. XXXVII, fig. 6), and Zibrowius (1980) discusses Petrarcainduced galls on this coral and F. marenzelleri. The present species of Petrarca, from Lizard Island on the Australian Great Barrier Reef, is significant because it is the first of its genus from shallow water (18 m). It is also the smallest ascothoracican known.
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