Three new species of the crangonid genus metacrangon zarenkov (crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea) from australia

Abstract

Examination of collections from waters off southern Australia resulted in significant findings of three new species of the crangonid genus Metacrangon Zarenkov, 1965: M. australis sp. nov. from the Southern Ocean off Tasmania, west of Maquarie Island; M. poorei sp. nov. from the Tasman Sea; and M. spinidorsalis sp. nov. from waters off southwestern Western Australia and the Tasman Sea. The two former species are morphologically similar to M. variabilis (Rathbun, 1902) from the north Pacific and M. proxima Kim, 2005 from Japan. The third is referred to the informal M. jacqueti (A. Milne-Edwards, 1881) species group. Differentiating characters of these three new species are discussed and a key to their identification is provided.