New and unusual abyssal gammaridean Amphipoda from the north-east Pacific
Author
Hendrycks, EA
Author
Conlan, KE
text
Journal of Natural History
2003
37
2303
2368
journal article
1464-5262
Triquetramana
gen. nov.
Diagnosis
Eye absent; rostrum short, rounded; antenna 1 slightly shorter than antenna 2, accessory flagellum one-articulate; mandibular palp feeble, shorter than mandible body, article 3 length 0.5×article 2; maxilla 2, inner plate wide, almost twice the width of outer plate; maxilliped palp, medial margin of dactylus spinose; coxa 1, not produced anteriorly; coxa 3 larger than 4, with a bluntly rounded, posteroventral lobe, posterior margin excavate; gnathopods 1–2, propodus triangular, equal in size, carpus elongated and non-lobate; peraeopods 5–6, basis expanded, rounded, subequal, merus expanded proximally; uropods spinose, rami broadened; telson elongate, cleft deeply.
Type
species
Triquetramana brevipalpa
sp. nov.
by monotypy.
Etymology
The genus name is from the Latin
triquetrus
(three cornered, triangular) plus
manus
(hand), referring to the peculiar shape of the propodus of gnathopods 1 and 2.
Remarks
Within the genera of
Eusiridae
that have eusirid-like gnathopods,
Triquetramana
is unique in the following combination of characters: equal sized, triangular gnathopods, with the carpus of gnathopods 1 and 2 lacking a ventral lobe; the very short, mandibular palp and the proximally expanded merus of peraeopods 5 and 6. It can be differentiated easily from other similar, eusirid genera as seen in
table 3
.
Additionally, it differs from
Eusiropsis
in the smooth, posterior margins of the basis of peraeopods 5–7 (vs serrate) and in the non-calceolate antennae (vs calceolate). Furthermore, from
Pareusirogenes
it differs in the inner plate of maxilla 1, which has only one small, subapical setule (vs three long, apical setae).