Tanapseudes gutui, a New Species of Apseudomorphan Tanaidacea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from the Caribbean Sea and the Taxonomic Status of the Family Tanapseudidae Băcescu

Abstract

Tanapseudes gutui, n. sp., is described from depths of 3-34 m off San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 4-5 m off Goat Island, Tobago. Tanapseudes sinensis Bamber from Hong Kong waters is re-examined and determined to represent a junior synonym of the type species T. ormuzana Bacescu which was originally collected in the Straights of Hormuz off Iran. Tanapseudes gutui can be distinguished from T. ormuzana by several characters including details of the mouth parts, the presence of a reduced spiniform seta on the distotergal margin of the propodus of pereopod 1, pereonites 3-6 with rounded anterior margins, and a pleotelson lacking a mid-lateral lobe. A neotype is established for T. ormuzana based on a specimen collected from near the original type locality, and its mouth parts and pereopod 1 are illustrated. Largely based on the absence of a palp on the maxillule and the presence of a bifurcate seta on the dactyl of pereopod I, the family Tanapseudidae Bacescu is now considered a subfamily within the family Kalliapseudidae Lang sensu Gutu. The genus Paradoxapseudes Gutu, formerly within the family Tanapseudidae sensu Gutu, is tentatively transferred to the family Apseudidae Leach. The apparent absence of the inner antennular flagel-lum led Bacescu (1978) to create the mono typic family Tanapseudidae Bacescu to receive Tanapseudes ormuzana Bacescu, 1978. His description was based on two adult specimens, a female (holotype) and a male (paratype) collected from the Ormuz Straights (eastern Persian Gulf). A second monotypic genus, Paradoxapseudes Gutu, 1991 (type species: P. cubensis), described from Cuban waters, was placed in the family by Gutu (1991). Bamber (2000) described a second species of Tanapseudes Bacescu,1978, T. sinensis Bamber, 2000 from off Hong Kong. He reduced the family Tanapseudidae to a subfamily within the family Sphyrapidae Gutu, 1980 and indicated that the family status of Paradoxapseudes was uncertain, but that the genus was not referable to the Sphyrapidae. During the examination of Tanaidacea collected from the near-shore waters of Puerto Rico and Tobago, we discovered a small apseudomorphan with a vestigial, uniarticulate, inner antennular flagellum. Except for the absence of a maxillular palp and the presence of a bifurcate seta on the dactyl of the first pereopod, the new species appeared to be very similar to the two described species of Tanapseudes: T. ormuzana and T. sinensis.