A new species of Numbakullidae Gutu & Heard, 2002 (Tanaidacea, Peracarida, Crustacea) from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Author
Stepien, Anna
text
ZooKeys
2013
337
35
47
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.337.5903
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.337.5903
1313-2970-337-35
Family
Numbakullidae
Gutu
& Heard, 2002
Remarks.
Gutu
and Heard (2002)
mentioned some morphological similarities between
Numbakullidae
and two other families:
Kalliapseudidae
Lang, 1956 and
Metapseudidae
Lang, 1970. The presence of filtering setae suggests a relationship to
Kalliapseudidae
.
Gutu
and Heard (2002)
also listed number of characters between the two families, which imply that present of setae is a parallelism.
Numbakullidae
resembles the
Metapseudidae
in the appearance of pereopods 2-5 (elongated propodus and well-developed dactylus).
Gutu
(2006) later suggested that
Numbakulla
is most closely similar to three genera from subfamily
Chondropodinae
Gutu
, 2008 (
Metapseudidae
):
Calozodion
Gardiner, 1973,
Zaraza
Gutu
, 2006c and
Chondropodus
Gutu
, 2006a based on configuration of terminal lobe of labium.
Despite this similarities there are many characters which distinguish the
Chondropodinae
from the
Numbakullidae
: short pleotelson, usually with lateral incision, spines on antennule, labium with lateral spines, pereopod 1 digging type, with row of spines and plumose setae on basis, and propodus longer than carpus. At this point, therefore the relationships of the
Numbakullidae
remained unclear.
Undoubtedly
Numbakulla
represents a separate family. According to a phylogenetic analysis based on morphological characters, the
Numbakullidae
is not closely related to either the
Kalliapseudidae
nor the
Metapseudidae
(personal observations, study in progress).