Archeolourinia shermani, a new genus and species of Louriniidae (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) from a Caribbean mesophotic zone

Abstract

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are found on the insular and continental slopes of Caribbean islands and comprise mainly scleractinian corals, sponges and macroalgae. These species provide habitat for a highly diverse and specialized crustacean fauna. A new genus and species of the family Louriniidae is described from samples taken from an MCE in south-west Puerto Rico. The new taxa can be diagnosed by: body elongate, almost cylindrical and with inconspicuous podoplean boundary between prosome and urosome; double genital somite with a discontinuous chitinized cuticular ridge; telson short with rectangular anal operculum; furca short; rostrum sinusoidal, well defined at the base; antennules 7-segmented with aesthetasc on the fourth segment; antenna with a brush-like basal seta and an abexopodal seta, exopod 1-segmented with 2 setae; endopod with 7 elements (1 geniculate seta and 1 modified inner spine); maxilliped well developed, prehensile, composed of syncoxa, basis, one segmented endopod and one claw-like apical seta; leg 1 endopod 3-segmented, first segment with a modified inner seta; legs 2, 3 and 4 with 2-segmented endopod with inner seta on the first segment; leg 5 basendopod fused, well developed with 4 setae, exopod well developed, with 5 setae; leg 6 represented by a single seta; and genital slits wide apart. The new genus and species can be confidently assigned to the family Louriniidae on the basis of the following synapomorphies: rostrum well-developed with rounded tip; antennule of female 7-segmented; mandible palp reduced; maxillule endopod and exopod absent; maxillae endopodite 2 represented by 3 setae; leg 5 basoendopod of female confluent, intercoxal sclerite absent, exopod 1-segmented; eggs retained in a single ventral egg sac; telson shorter than last urosomite; and furca short and with 6 setae.

Two new endemic tree species from Puerto Rico: Pisonia horneae and Pisonia roqueae (Nyctaginaceae)

“…The Caribbean Islands are considered one of the hottest hotspots of world biodiversity (Myers et al 2000) with a richness that has not been fully documented yet, as evidenced by the dozens of new species described from the region every year (Hedges and Conn 2012, Corgosinho and Schizas 2013, Mercado-Diaz et al 2014, Cardoso and Braga 2015, Aguirre-Santoro et al 2016, Carmenate-Reyes et al 2017). For example, Puerto Rico – the smallest of the Greater Antilles – is probably the island with the best documented flora of the region with about 2331 species of native plants (Gann et al 2015-2017).…”

Morphological and genetic species diversity in ostracods (Crustacea: Oligostraca) from Caribbean reefs

“…We are particularly interested in the crustacean fauna, and several publications have been devoted to the crustacean biodiversity of mesophotic reefs (e.g., Petrescu et al 2012Petrescu et al , 2013Corgosinho and Schizas 2013;Senna et al 2014;). An abundant component of the mesophotic meiofauna are benthic Ostracoda, which are also well known for their remarkable fossil record (Benson and Coleman 1963;Ruppert et al 2004;Cohen et al 2007;Oakley et al 2012;Rodriguez-Lazaro and Ruiz-Muñoz 2012), and usefulness as indicators of paleoenvironments (Benson and Coleman 1963;Alvarez et al 2000;Martin-Rubio et al 2006;Rodriguez-Lazaro and Ruiz-Muñoz 2012).…”

A new species of Litarachna (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Pontarachnidae) from a Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystem

“…and algae. The MCEs of Puerto Rico represent a potential biodiversity hotspot for marine arthropods and so far 2 mites (Pešić et al 2012b, current paper), 1 harpacticoid copepod (Corgosinho and Schizas 2013) and 9 cumaceans (Petrescu et al 2012, 2013, 2014a, b) new to science have been described.…”