First record of the genus Paranebalia Claus, 1880 (Crustacea: Leptostraca) from the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Benthic monitoring of the marine shallow bottoms off Menorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean) has yielded several specimens of the leptostracan genus Paranebalia Claus, 1880. This finding constitutes the first report of the genus from European latitudes and the Mediterranean Sea and therefore the third leptostracan genus known from the Mediterranean. Specimens are described, illustrated and compared to other known species; they might represent a new species but their state of maturity and the lack of an appropriate diagnosis for the type species of the genus, Paranebalia longipes (Willemöes-Suhm, 1875), did not allow to confirm its taxonomic status.

Primer registro de Nebalia troncosoi Moreira, Cacabelos & Domínguez, 2003 (Crustacea: Phyllocarida) en el Mediterráneo ibérico

“…Most of previous records corresponded to N. bipes but its presence in southern European latitudes and Iberian waters is doubtful (Dahl, 1985;Moreira, 2015). In comparison, records of leptostracans from the southern and the Mediterranean coasts are scarce and mostly correspond to N. strausi (e.g., Dahl, 1985); recently, Taboada et al (2016) recorded N. kocatasi from Blanes and Moreira & Junoy (2017) also reported the genus Paranebalia Claus, 1880 for the Balearic Islands.…”

Leptostracans (Crustacea: Phyllocarida) from mud volcanoes at the Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic) with description of a new species of Sarsinebalia Dahl, 1985

“…The number of known species of extant leptostracans (Crustacea: Phyllocarida) has been substantially expanded in the last decades, with descriptions of new taxa from many areas around the globe, including North and Central America (Modlin 1991;Escobar-Briones & Villalobos-Hiriart 1995;Martin et al 1996;Vetter 1996b;Haney & Martin 2000, 2005Haney et al 2001;Ortiz et al 2011), eastern and southeast Asia (Lee & Bamber 2011;Song et al 2012bSong et al , 2013, southwest Africa (Bochert & Zettler 2012), western Pacific Ocean (Ledoyer 2000) and Australia (Walker-Smith 1998. In the northeast Atlantic, following the review of European leptostracans by Dahl (1985), new taxa have been described and new records reported from across the Atlantic coasts (Ledoyer 1998;Moreira et al 2003aMoreira et al , 2003bMoreira et al , 2009aMcCormack et al 2016) and the Mediterranean Sea (Ledoyer 1997;Koçak & Katagan 2006;Koçak & Moreira 2015;Moreira et al 2007Moreira et al , 2012Moreira & Junoy 2017). Most of the extant leptostracan species belong to the genus Nebalia Leach, 1814, for a total of 11 species in European latitudes and the Mediterranean Sea (Dahl 1985;Ledoyer 1997;Moreira et al 2009a;Koçak et al 2011;McCormack et al 2016;Latry & Droual 2020).…”

“…Most of the extant leptostracan species belong to the genus Nebalia Leach, 1814, for a total of 11 species in European latitudes and the Mediterranean Sea (Dahl 1985;Ledoyer 1997;Moreira et al 2009a;Koçak et al 2011;McCormack et al 2016;Latry & Droual 2020). The genera Nebaliella Thiele, 1904, Sarsinebalia Dahl, 1985and the pelagic Nebaliopsis Sars, 1887and Pseudonebaliopsis Petryashov, 1996 have also been recorded from the NE Atlantic (Mauchline & Gage 1983;Dahl 1985) while Paranebalia Claus, 1880 has been recently reported from the Mediterranean Sea (Moreira & Junoy 2017).…”