The first record of Gnathostenetroididea Kussakin, 1967 from Australian waters with description of four new species of Gnathostenetroides Amar, 1957 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Asellota) from the Great Barrier Reef
Author
Malyutina, Marina V.
Author
L. Bruce, Niel
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-02-11
4554
2
301
350
journal article
27574
10.11646/zootaxa.4554.2.1
f2fd53f0-4029-4df6-bd91-d9b2ea0fc8c2
1175-5326
2623588
24BF4E57-F9EA-440C-8D07-069A0756FBC0
Synonymy of
Dignatroides
Stock and Vonk, 1990
with
Caecostenetroides
Fresi and Schiecke, 1968
The genus
Dignatroides
Stock and Vonk, 1990
was established for a single species,
D. leptosoma
Vonk and Stock, 1990
, from Tenerife, the Canary Islands. This genus appears to have been overlooked since its description, with only one citation of the name by Castelló and Junoy (2007). The authors did not give clear justification as to why they described the new genus for the species. They recognized the similarity of the mandibles of
Dignatroides
mandibles to those of
Gnathostenetroides
,
both genera having long projections, and merely added that “
numerous details separate the Canarian taxon from its Mediterranean relative”
. In the light of the species of
Gnathostenetroides
described herein, the presence of a mandibular projection seems to be an attribute of a terminal developmental stage of males in the family. Assessing the well-illustrated and detailed figures of
Dignatroides leptosoma
and another new species described in that paper,
Caecostenetroides ruderalis
, we can detect no discernible differences at generic level between
Dignatroides
and
Caecostenetroides
.
The species share all the key characters of
Caecostenetroides
: eyeless, vermiform habitus, pleotelson shape with rounded posterolateral margins without indentations, and what is the most important—the similar morphology of pleopods 3 and 4 with the rami of similar width, with a one-articled endopod. Therefore
Dignatroides
Stock and Vonk, 1990
is here placed into junior synonymy with
Caecostenetroides
Fresi and Schiecke, 1968
, so forming
Caecostenetroides leptosoma
(
Vonk and Stock, 1990
)
,
comb. nov.