Epimeria robusta
| Epimeria robusta | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Epimeria robusta | ||||||||||||
| KH Barnard , 1930 |
Epimeria robusta is a crustacean from the order of the amphipods and lives in the Southern Ocean .
features
Epimeria robusta reaches a body length of 43 millimeters. It is yellowish in color, occasionally light yellowish with scattered dark spots. The legs and the mouthparts are partially covered with pink. The eyes are red.
The species has a stocky build with a massive, heavily calcified exoskeleton, without long thorns or spines. The segments of the peraeon are not keeled on the upper side, only the seventh shows an indicated keel. At the pleon the first and second segment have a median, straight keel, the third is initially also keeled, followed by an inconspicuous, flap-like enlargement, behind it a similar depression, at the rear end a blunt tooth. of the last three pleon segments (the Urosomiten that the uropods wear) transmits the first a distinct, obtuse limited extension and the third a sharp tooth. The rostrum on the head is of moderate length; it is about as long as the base of the second antennae. The first and second gnathopods (the first pairs of legs of the trunk section , formed as subchela ) have a strikingly wide carpus and propodus (the fifth and sixth segment).
The species is very similar to Epimeria robustoides and Epimeria gargantua , with which it has often been confused and together forms the robusta species group. It can be distinguished from these species by the formation of some teeth on the pleosomes.
distribution
The species lives exclusively in the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Shelf Sea, between the coast of Adélieland and the western Ross Sea , proven at sea depths of 85 to 814 meters.
Way of life
Epimeria robusta lives on the sea floor, as predators of small invertebrates such as worms, polyps, small crabs or starfish .
Taxonomy
The species was first described by Keppel Harcourt Barnard after discoveries from the British Terra Nova expedition in 1910. Today it is assigned to the subgenus Hoplepimeria , all of whose species live exclusively in the Southern Ocean .
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)
Web links
- Epimeria (Hoplepimeria) robusta (KH Barnard, 1930) World Amphipoda Database, accessed through: World Register of Marine Species, www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved January 4, 2019
- Scan of the first description at www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Epimeria robusta , picture with a brief description at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences , accessed on May 23, 2018