Alexandrella dentata Chevreux, 1912

Alexandrella dentata Chevreux, 1912: 213 .

Alexandrella dentata – Chevreux 1913: 134, figs 31–33. — J.L. Barnard 1958: 133; 1969: 452, fig. 163a. — Holman & Watling 1983: 37–39, fig. 4. — J.L. Barnard & Karaman 1991: 704, fig. 127C. — Serejo 2014: 139, in part (key).

non Alexandrella dentata – Berge & Vader 2005a: 1332–1335, figs 2, 3 (= A. mixta s. lat.). — J.L. Barnard 1961: 77, fig. 46. (= A. subchelata).

Distribution

Bellingshausen Sea: Alexander Island, 297 m (Chevreux 1913).

Biology

The holotype of A. dentata was found inside a sponge (Chevreux 1913).

Remarks

Chevreux (1913) explicitly described and illustrated a tooth on the side of each segments of the pereion of the holotype of Alexandrella dentata, hence the name of the species. They were not reproduced, however, in the figures of J.L. Barnard (1969) and J.L. Barnard & Karaman (1991), which were copied from Chevreux (1913). Neither are they mentioned in the account of the holotype of A. dentata by Holman & Watling (1983), who only studied the appendages and not the body. Berge & Vader (2005a) also did not mention these teeth on their specimens and put Alexandrella mixta, which is not supposed to have such teeth, in synonymy with A. dentata . The specimens of Berge & Vader (2005a) are without lateral teeth, which indicates that the species is not A. dentata . The presence or absence of these lateral teeth is here considered as a species level character distinguishing A. mixta from A. dentata . A. mixta has been recorded in widely separate localities and across a wide bathymetric range. Moreover, small differences exist between the various descriptions and illustrations. Therefore, A. mixta might be a species complex.