Michelea leura ( Poore and Griffin, 1979 )

Poore And D, Gary C. B., 2015, Micheleidae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Axiidea): new family, generic and species synonymies, three new Australian species, and new records, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 73, pp. 95-105 : 101

Michelea leura ( Poore and Griffin, 1979)

Callianidea leura Poore and Griffin, 1979: 281–284 , figs 40, 41.— Sakai, 1984: 104.

Michelea leura .— Kensley and Heard 1991: 519.— Poore, 1997: 381–386, figs 17–19.— Sakai, 2011: 315.

Michelea paraleura Poore, 1997: 390–393 , figs 23, 24.— Sakai, 2011: 316. Syn. nov.

Material examined. Australia, NT, Port Essington , Mangrove Point Reef (11°24.0'S, 132°11.0'E), LWS, R. Hanley, 15 Sep 1985 ( NTMAG Cr013206, juvenile male, cl 2.5 mm) .

Distribution. NT, Qld, 11°– 19°S, reef, 1– 2 m.

Remarks. Poore’s (1997) arguments separating M. paraleura from M. leura seem now unconvincing. The new juvenile male, three-quarters the size of the figured paratype male from NT, lacks a first pleopod. The appendix masculina carries fewer setae than in the paratype. The numbers of lamellae on the endopod and exopod of pleopod 2 are fewer (17, 13) then those of the larger paratype (26, 15) but more are evident on more posterior pleopods. The species was previously recorded from the Great Barrier Reef, Qld, and Oxley Island, NT. This record takes the species to mainland Australia.