Epimeria quasimodo
| Epimeria quasimodo | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Epimeria quasimodo | ||||||||||||
| d'Udekem d'Acoz & Verheye , 2017 |
Epimeria quasimodo is a kind of flea crabs from the genus Epimeria . The species lives in the sea (marine), exclusively in the Southern Ocean.
features
Epimeria quasimodo reaches a body length of up to 50 millimeters. It is predominantly red in color, with the red pigment forming an irregular, fine pattern of spots; predominantly light-colored individuals with a similar but less extensive red pattern are rarer. The eyes are also colored red. Like all related species, the exoskeleton of Epimeria quasimodo is thick and heavily armored by hard calcium deposits, the trunk segments have a clear keel on the upper side. Of the peraeon and pleon plates of the thorax and abdomen, the first peraeon plates of this species are smooth, the second and third have a small bulge. From the fourth peraeon to the third pleon plates they are broad and low keeled, but without teeth. The peraeon plates seven and pleon plates one to three have a shallow pit-like recess. The rostrum is of medium length, it protrudes beyond the end of the first segment of the first antennae. It's straight on the bottom. The eyes are relatively large and oval in shape.
The species can be distinguished from the similar Epimeria georgiana , which it resembles in general body shape and with which it was confused until 2017, in the following features: The hip (coxa) of the fourth pair of legs is obtuse at the front corners, not pointed, the outer rear The (posterodistal) corner of the base (of a leg link ) of peraeopods five to seven has a distinct appendage on the sides. The shape of the rostrum distinguishes itself from the also very similar Epimeria linseae .
The Epimeria species of the southern seas have been compared to living gemstones because of their curious shape and vivid colors.
Distribution and Biology
The species is known from the seabed of Elephant Island to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula , in water depths of 131 to 407 meters. It is considered a common species in its habitat. Like all species of the genus (with the exception of the subgenus Epimeriella ), Epimeria quasimodo is a benthic organism (living on the sea floor) with little ability to swim in open water.
After analyzing the intestinal contents, the species feeds predatory.
Taxonomy
The species is assigned to the subgenus Hoplepimeria within the genus and is its type species . In principle, it has been known for a long time, but was confused with the similar Epimeria georgiana Schellenberg, 1931 until 2017 . According to the more recent findings, however, Epimeria georgiana is limited in its distribution to the coasts of South Georgia . The species was re-described in 2017, along with 26 other southern polar species of the genus. The genus Epimeria was divided into eight sub-genera, of which only one ( Epimeria see str.) Is not restricted to the Southern Ocean.
Recent studies indicate that the southern polar Epimeria species do not form a common clade with those from temperate waters . If these results were to be confirmed, the species would have to be transferred to a new genus.
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| Systematics of the genus Epimeria (simplified) according to Beermann et al. (2018). |
The type material for the species description comes from a polar expedition of the German research vessel Polarstern .
Naming
The species is named after the character Quasimodo in the often filmed historical novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. The reason for the name was the shape of the body, which appears hunched when viewed from the side.
Literature and Sources
- Cédric d'Udekem d'Acoza, Marie L. Verheye (2017): Epimeria of the Southern Ocean with notes on their relatives (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Eusiroidea). European Journal of Taxonomy 359: 1-553. doi: 10.5852 / ejt.2017.359 . (open access)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anne-Nina Lörz and Oliver Coleman (2009): Living gems: jewel-like creatures from the deep. Water & Atmosphere 17 (1): 16-17.
- ^ Charles Oliver Coleman (1991): Comparative fore-gut morphology of Antarctic Amphipoda (Crustacea) adapted to different food sources. Hydrobiologia 223: 1-9. (as Epimeria georgiana )
- ↑ Marie L. Verheye, Thierry Backeljau, Cédric d'Udekem d'Acoza (2017): Locked in the icehouse: Evolution of an endemic Epimeria (Amphipoda, Crustacea) species flock on the Antarctic shelf. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 114: 14-33. doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2017.05.013
- ↑ Jan Beermann, Michael V. Westbury, Michael Hofreiter, Leon Hilgers, Fabian Deister, Hermann Neumann, Michael J. Raupach (2018): Cryptic species in a well-known habitat: applying taxonomics to the amphipod genus Epimeria (Crustacea, Peracarida) . Scientific Reports 8 (1) Article number: 6893 doi: 10.1038 / s41598-018-25225-x
Web links
- Epimeria (Hoplepimeria) quasimodo d'Udekem d'Acoz & Verheye, 2017 World Amphipoda Database, accessed through: World Register of Marine Species, www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
- Top 10 new species 2018, by Eleanor Imster May 29, 2018.