Tenerognathia visus Tanaka, 2005

Ota, Yuzo, 2012, Gnathiidae from Kumejima Island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, southwestern Japan, with description of three new species (Crustacea: Isopoda) *, Zootaxa 3367, pp. 79-94 : 91

Tenerognathia visus Tanaka, 2005

Tenerognathia visus Tanaka, 2005: 565 [type locality: Cape Maeda, Okinawajima Island, Japan, 26°26ʹN, 127°46ʹE]. — Ota et al. 2007: 1266. — Kensley et al. 2009: 32.

Material examined. One male 1.7 mm in total length (RUMF-ZC-1435), from dead coral rubble or rock rubble, Stn. Trawl 45 (triangular dredge), 26°19.907ʹN, 126°43.191ʹE – 26°20.056ʹN, 126°42.622ʹE, 67.5–76.0 m depth, off Kumejima Island, the Ryukyu Archipelago, southwestern Japan, 16 November 2009, triangular dredge.

Remarks. This species, belonging to a monospecific genus, was originally recorded from coral rubble in 2 m depth at Okinawajima Island, and from reef edge in 11–22 m depth at Ishigakijima Island. Tenerognathia visus is easily identified from the other genera and species by some remarkable characters; very large eyes occupying whole of the side of head, elliptical cephalosome without dorsal sulcus and paraocular ornamentation, short simple mandible, and narrow and weakly chitinized pereonites ( Tanaka 2005), which resembles whole shapes of other gnathiid larvae. The specimens collected in this study were identified as T. visus based on the shapes of cephalothorax and pleotelson.