Verdeia, Published, 2007

Published, First, 2007, A revision of the tropical / temperate amphipod genus Dulichiella Stout, 1912, and the description of a new Atlantic genus Verdeia gen. nov. (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae), Zootaxa 1424, pp. 1-62 : 53

Verdeia gen. nov.

Type species. Melita subchelata Schellenberg, 1925 .

Diagnosis. Antenna 1 longer than antenna 2. Maxilla 1 inner plate long, narrow, tapering distally, with 2 well developed apical plumose setae. Maxilla 2 inner plate with oblique setal row. Gnathopod 2 male, significantly unequal in size, palm in larger acute, female equal in size. Pereopods 5–7 dactylar ungues without accessory spines. Pereopod 7 basis sexual dimorphism unknown. Pleonites dorsally serrate. Uropod 3 inner ramus scalelike; outer ramus 4 to 5 x longer than wide, 2-articulate. Telson deeply cleft, lobes tapering distally to an acute point.

Included species. Verdeia includes 2 species: V. grandimana ( Chevreux, 1908) and V. subchelata ( Schellenberg, 1925) .

Remarks. Verdeia is part of the Megamoera group of melitids and appears to be a sister taxon of Dulichiella . The shapes of the lateral cephalic lobes, the robust setae along the posterior margin of antenna 1 peduncular article 1, the slender mandibular palps with a long third article, the long, slender shape of the inner plates on maxilla 1, the asymmetrical and enlarged male second gnathopods, the shapes and structure of the female second gnathopods, the shape of coxae 4, the shapes of the basis of pereopods 5–7, the third uropods and the telsons are all similar.

Verdeia differs from Dulichiella in not having setae on the anteroventral corner of the head, in not having posteroventral notches on the anterior coxae, in having a different structure to the distolateral crown and palm on the propodus of male gnathopod 2, in having an acute rather than obtuse palmar angle on gnathopod 2, and in not having accessory spines on the dactyli of pereopods 5–7.