Recent collections of sea spiders (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) from China seas, with some new records and a checklist of the area
Author
Wang, Jianjia
Author
Lin, Heshan
Author
Huang, Dingyong
Author
Zheng, Xinqing
Author
Liu, Qinghe
Author
Wang, Jianjun
Author
Niu, Wentao
Author
Zhang, Feng
text
Zootaxa
2020
2020-06-23
4802
2
361
373
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4802.2.9
1175-5326
3907600
0217F11A-9F04-4029-850B-C85CF13ED72A
Propallene
sp.
(
Fig. 2
a–g)
Material examined
Female
(TIO2016
CNHD3101
),
Cangnan
,
Zhejiang
,
China
,
27.16°N
120.49°E
,
15.5 m
depth
,
15 Nov. 2016
,
Kun Liu
&
Jianfeng Mou
.
Description
Trunk fully segmented, smooth (
Fig. 2-a
). Lateral processes glabrous, separated by less than their own diameter. Ocular tubercle low, eyes invisible, with two papillae on top. Proboscis short, pointing slightly downward. Abdomen subtriangular, short, downward. Chelifore longer than proboscis, one–articled scape (
Fig. 2-e
). Palm slightly shorter than movable finger but slightly longer than immovable finger, with distally long setae. Both fingers curved, movable and immovable with four and three teeth respective. Without palp. Oviger 10-articled (
Fig. 2-b, c, d
). O4 longest. O5-O9 with one or two distally short setae. Terminal four oviger articles with compound spines, formula 7:7:6:9, distal spines on each article with one or two thick lateral teeth, different from the others with denticulate teeth. Legs slender, with few setae (
Fig. 2-f, g
). Coxa 2 longer than coxa 1 and 3 together. Femora longest, swollen with eggs. First tibiae longer than second tibiae. Tarsus small, subtriangular, with dorsal and ventral setae. Propodus straight with two long simple spines basally and nine sole spines. Main claw strong, about 0.6 propodal length, curved, without auxiliaries. Genital pores round and big, present ventrally on second coxae of all legs.
Measurements (in mm)
Trunk length (from chelifore insertion to tip of 4th lateral processes), 1.09; trunk width (across 2nd lateral processes), 0.64; proboscis length, 0.28; abdomen length, 0.11.
Length of oviger articles 1-10 respectively: 0.07; 0.11; 0.13; 0.23; 0.18; 0.11; 0.16; 0.15; 0.13; 0.10.
Third leg, coxa 1, 0.22; coxa 2, 0.41; coxa 3, 0.17; femur, 0.71; tibia 1, 0.57; tibia 2, 0.48; tarsus, 0.05; propodus, 0.40; claw, 0.25.
Remarks
According to the diagnosis of
Propallene
(
Stock, 1975
;
Staples, 1979
), this female specimen was definitely assigned to this genus, but it was not firm to determine the species with lacking of male specimens and limited descriptions about females of other
Propallene
species.
P. crinipes
Stock, 1968
,
P. kempi
(
Calman, 1923
)
and females of
P. stocki
Fage, 1956
shared the common characteristic of less teeth (total number<8) present on chela fingers. We could distinguish our specimen with
P. crinipes
by compact lateral processes, with
P. kempi
by compact lateral processes and straight propodus, with females of
P. stocki
by elongated second coxa, ratio of two tibiae and less sole spines.
Although this female showed several differences between the existing species with full description about both sexes, it was unreliable for establishing a new species relying on a single female specimen, especially in view of distinguishing among species in this genus mainly base on male characters, so we just described and illustrated here and waited for more material especially males.
Huang and Lin (2012a)
had listed
P. longiceps
(Böhm, 1879)
in the checklist occurring in
China
seas, but this species did not appear in
Shao
et al.
(2010)
. This specimen might be actually the first recorded in
China
for the genus
Propallene
.