Belzebub hanseni, (NOBILI, 1905), 2016

Vereshchaka, Alexander L., Olesen, Jørgen & Lunina, Anastasia A., 2016, A phylogeny-based revision of the family Luciferidae (Crustacea: Decapoda), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 178 (1), pp. 15-32 : 28-29

BELZEBUB HANSENI ( NOBILI, 1905) COMB. NOV.

( FIG. 7A – G )

Synonyms: Lucifer Hanseni Nobili, 1905 ; Lucfer hanseni Borridaile, 1916 ; Lucifer inermis Borradaile, 1915 .

Diagnosis: Anterior ventral process on sixth abdominal segment in male much shorter than posterior process; ventral process on telson of medium size; outer spine of uropodal exopod nearly reaching distal end of exopod in male but is much shorter in females (by far nor reaching distal end of exopod). Petasma: sheath without hook, subconical, with distal longitudinal rows of fine scales, plate-like structures small, with entire margins; processus long, needle-like, finely setose along medial part, without a dense brush of long terminal setae.

Remarks: The outer tooth of the uropodal exopod, which is far from reaching (nearly reaching in the other Luciferidae ) the distal end of exopod, distinguishes females of B. hanseni from all other species of the genus and family. The processus ventralis is very similar to that in B. faxoni and B. chacei , but differs in the position of the fine lateral setae (medial in B. hanseni and apical in B. faxoni and B. chacei ).

Etymology: Named after Dr Hans J. H. Hansen, a Danish carcinologist.

Geographical distribution ( Fig. 12): Madagascar; Red Sea; around India; South China Sea, East China Sea; Changjiang estuary; Victoria, Australia, Tasmania, South Pacific Ocean. This species has been recently reported from the Mediterranean coast of Israel, which probably has resulted from a recent invasion through the Suez Canal, rather than the species having gone undetected in the intervening period ( De Grave, Einav & Galil, 2012).

Figures

Figure 7. Petasma of Belzebub hanseni (Nobili, 1905) comb. nov.: ‘thumb’ (A, scanning electron micrograph), general structure (B), apical view of the petasma (C, scanning micrograph), lateral view of the sheath and the processus ventralis (D, scanning electron micrograph, E), apex of processus ventralis and the sheath (F, G, scanning electron micrographs). Arrows point at same morphological structures.

Figure 12. Provisory macroscale geographical distribution of species of Lucifer and Belzebub. Based upon Dana Expedition data, Hansen (1919), Bowman & McCain (1967), Omori (1977), Lee et al. (1992), Perez-Farfante & Kensley (1997), Antony (2005), Ma, Xu & Zhou (2009), Xu (2010), and Teodoro et al. (2012).