Calliaxina bulimba ( Poore and Griffin, 1979 )

Poore, Gary, 2021, Indo-West Pacific and Australian species of Eucalliacidae with descriptions of four new species (Crustacea: Axiidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 80, pp. 1-41 : 6

Calliaxina bulimba ( Poore and Griffin, 1979)

Figures 1a , 4 , 5 , 12a, h

Callianassa bulimba Poore and Griffin, 1979: 257 , fig. 21.

Calliax bulimba .—de Saint Laurent and Manning, 1982: 222.— Sakai, 1999: 119, fig. 32a–c.— Sakai, 2005: 202.

Calliaxina bulimba .— Sakai, 2011: 499.— Poore et al., 2019: 127, 146, fig. 19g, h.

Eucalliax bulimba .— Dworschak, 2005: fig. 5c, d.

Eucalliax kensleyi .— Sakai, 2017: 1122–1124 (partim), fig. 2D.

Material examined. Australia. Qld , Britomart Reef front, 18° 17' S, 146° 38' E ( NMV stn AIMS 57 ), NMV J12184 (female, 8.7 mm). Rib Reef, 18.48° S, 146.86° E, October 1985, shallow lagoon, 8 m, (M. Riddle stn R/10 /1), NMV J71676 (male, 4.6 mm) .

Papua New Guinea. Madang Province, lagoon, PAPUA NIUGINI stations: 05° 10.2' S, 145° 50.4' E, 1–3 m (stn PR243), MNHN- IU-2013-7097* (male, 4.5 mm); 05° 10.3' S, 145° 48.5' E, 1–18 m (stn PR213), MNHN-IU-2013-7124 (female, 3.5 mm) .

Diagnosis. Sternite 7 with transverse groove visible only laterally, anteromedial lobe rounded. Antennule peduncle reaching to midpoint of antenna peduncle article 5. Maxilliped 3 exopod vestigial, about twice as long as wide. Major cheliped merus, lower margin with 2 or 3 proximal truncate teeth; propodus distomesial margin with setae aligned in 2 similar groups of c. 9 setae each. Male pleopod 1 article 1 linear, with distal setae; article 2 short, oblique (juvenile form).

Colour. Exoskeleton translucent white (fig. 1a).

Distribution. Indonesia, Ambon; Papua New Guinea, Madang and New Ireland provinces; Australia, Qld (type locality). Coral reef lagoon, 1– 18 m.

Remarks. Poore and Griffin’s (1979) simple figures are supplemented here by illustrations of a newly discovered male and female from Australia. The telson is widest proximally, the anterior margins each side of the rostrum are concave, and the distomesial margins of the propodi of the chelipeds bear two widely separate small groups of c. 9 setae each. As is typical of callianassid-like families, the rostrum of small individuals is more acute than in adults and the cornea more swollen. Separation of the anterior and posterior sections of thoracic sternite 7 is weak, with only a slight inclination laterally terminating in a sublateral pit; the posterolateral margin carries groups of c. 6, 7 and 9 long setae (fig. 12h). As figured by Dworschak (2005), pleonite 1 lacks obvious ventral plates but bears two short rows of three or four long setae anterior to the pleopods.

The 4.5-mm male from Papua New Guinea has a pleopod 1 with long distal setae on article 1 and a short simple oblique article 2 (fig. 5d). This is consistent with Poore and Griffin’s (1979: fig. 21g) and Dworschak’s (2005: fig. 5c, d) illustrations of the much larger holotype (cl. 10 mm) and resembles those of Eucalliaxiopsis inaequimana (see Dworschak, 2014: fig. 4j–l), E. madagassa (see Ngoc-Ho, 2014: fig. 2S, as C. thomassini ) and E. patio sp. nov. Pleopod 1 of the 4.6-mm male from Australia differs in having a bilobed article 2 with a longitudinal crease and a separate appendix interna (fig. 5b). As argued by Poore et al. (2019), this would appear to be an intermediate form tending towards the more typical eucalliacid male pleopod (e.g., fig. 7h, j). Undeveloped male pleopods 1 are also seen in small juveniles of C. novaebritanniae (see below).

The small specimens from Papua New Guinea can be distinguished from the holotype in having an apparently broader uropodal endopod (1.25 times as long as wide vs 1.4 times). They did not possess the fine granular lateral surface in the gape of the cheliped illustrated by Poore and Griffin (1979). Sakai (1999: fig. 32) showed the cobblestone pattern on the lower branchiostegite to be a little more extensive in the holotype from Queensland than on the new material from Papua New Guinea.

This is one of two species with a rudimentary exopod on maxilliped 3, overlooked by Poore and Griffin (1979) but noted on the holotype by Sakai (1999). The exopod bears a few short setae. The other is C. kensleyi ( Dworschak, 2005) ; the two were differentiated by Dworschak (2005) but see further comments under C. kensleyi below.

Sakai (2017) listed and figured an ovigerous female from Ambon, Indonesia, as Eucalliax kensleyi but on biogeographical grounds this is certainly C. bulimba .

Figures

Figure 1. Live colour photographs: a, Calliaxina bulimba, Papua New Guinea. MNHN-IU-2013-7097; b, c, C. kensleyi, Saudi Arabia, UF 36699; d, e, C. novaebritanniae, Papua New Guinea, MNHN-IU-2013-7062; f, Eucalliaxiopsis dworschaki, French Polynesia, UF 16286; g, E. dworschaki, Papua New Guinea, MNHN-IU-2013-7081; h, E. inaequimana, French Polynesia, UF 29162; i, E. inaequimana, French Polynesia, UF 29208. Photos a, d, e, g: Z. Ďuriš; b, c, f, h, i, A. Anker. Various scales.

Figure 4. Calliaxina bulimba. Australia, Qld, NMV J12184 (female, 8.7 mm): a, anterior carapace, eyestalks, antennule, antenna; b, telson, uropod; c, thoracic sternite 7; d, pleonal sternite 1; e, maxilliped 3; f, g, major cheliped (right), mesial, lateral views; h, minor cheliped (left), mesial view; uropod. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 5. Calliaxina bulimba. Australia, Qld, NMV J71676 (male, 4.6 mm): a, left coxa 5, pleonite 1, pleopod 1 in situ, lateral view; b, c, pleopods 1, 2. Papua New Guinea, MNHN-IU-2013-7097 (male, cl. 4.5 mm): d, e, pleopods 1, 2. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 12. Calliaxina spp. C. bulimba: a, major cheliped, mesial. C. kensleyi: b, c, major cheliped lateral, mesial. C. novaebritanniae: d, major cheliped, mesial; e, minor cheliped, mesial. C. sakaii: f, g, minor cheliped mesial, lateral. Thoracic sterna: h, C. bulimba; i, C. kensleyi; j, C. novaebritanniae. Various scales.