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NOTE ON THE GIANT ISOPOD GENUS BATHYNOMUS MILNE EDWARDS, 1879 WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES

1972; Seto Marine Biological Laboratory; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5134/175798

2189-2695

Chang-tai Shih,

Marine and environmental studies

Specimens belonging to the genus Bathynomus Milne Edwards, 1879, are examined.Bathynomus decemspinosus n.sp. is described based on a specimen from the Strait of Taiwan.Bathynomus aifini:S Richardson, 1910, is redescribed based on four specimens from the South China Sea.Gut contents of several Bathynomus spp.from different oceans are examined.Bathynomus Milne Edwards, 1879 belongs to the family Cirolanidae of the suborder Flabellifera.Species of this genus have 7 free pereonites and 5 free pleonites and a telson with strongly toothed posterior margin.There are free coxal plates on pereonites 2-7.All pereopods are ambulatory and pleopods swimming and respiratory.Apart from the large size, the most distinct character of the bathynomids is the development of highly ramified branchiae on the posterior surface of inner pleopod rami.Milne Edwards (1879) had briefly described Bathynomus giganteus, the first species of this genus, based on a specimen from the Gulf of Mexico.Ortmann ( 1895) reported a second species, B. doederleini, from Sagami Bay, Japan.Milne Edwards and Bouvier ( 1902) contributed a monograph on Bathynomus with a full description of the two species then known and a discussion of the systematic position of the genus.Richardson (1910) added two new species, B. affinis and B. propinquus, both from the adjacent waters of the Philippines.Imaizumi (1953) found a fossil specimen of Bathynomus from the Middle Miocene of Okayama, Japan and suggested that two other fossil isopods, Palaega carteri from Bedfordshire, England (Woodward, 1870) and P. guadelpiensis from the Upper Cretaceous of Texas, U.S.A. (Rathbun, 1935) would probably belong to Bathynomus giganteus.Bathynomus giganteus, well known for its large size (largest known: 356 mm), has been found in the tropical Atlantic, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean