An unusual new species of paguroid (Crustacea,Anomura, Paguridae) from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico |
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Authors: | Rafael Lemaitre Ana Rosa Vázquez-Bader Adolfo Gracia |
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Institution: | 1.Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746, USA ;2.Laboratorio de Ecología Pesquera de Crustáceos, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM, Av. Universidad # 3000, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CU, Distrito Federal, 04510, México |
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Abstract: | A new hermit crab species of the family Paguridae, Tomopaguropsis
ahkinpechensis
sp. n., is described from deep waters (780–827 m) of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the second species of Tomopaguropsis known from the western Atlantic, and the fifth worldwide. The new species is morphologically most similar to a species from Indonesia, Tomopaguropsis
crinita McLaughlin, 1997, the two having ocular peduncles that diminish in width distally, reduced corneas, dense cheliped setation, and males lacking paired pleopods 1. The calcified figs on the branchiostegite and anterodorsally on the posterior carapace, and the calcified first pleonal somite that is not fused to the last thoracic somite, are unusual paguroid characters. A discussion of the affinities and characters that define this new species is included, along with a key to all five species of Tomopaguropsis. |
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Keywords: | Tomopaguropsis" target="_blank">Tomopaguropsis new species Paguridae" target="_blank">Paguridae hermit crab deep water Gulf of Mexico |
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