Neotanais Beddard, 1886

Larsen, Kim & Blazewicz-Paszkwycz, Magdalena, 2003, A new species of Neotanais Beddard (Crustacea: Tanaidacea) from the Subantartctic, off the Falkland Islands, Zootaxa 339, pp. 1-11 : 2

Neotanais Beddard, 1886

Diagnosis: Female. Eye lobes present, never with visual elements. Pleonites never fused always bearing pleopods. Pleotelson not acorn­shaped. Antennule uniramous with seven articles. Antenna without squama and with nine articles. Mandibles without palp, with strong, heavily calcified molars. Labium consisting of two setose lobes and setose palp (more­or­less fused). Maxillule with two endites, with simple and specialized setae, without palp. Maxilla well­developed with multiple specialized setae. Maxilliped with unfused coxa and basis; endites always separate, with several simple and specialized setae. Epignath strongly developed, divided into two almost equally sized lobes, with setose terminal seta. Chelipeds attached to cephalothorax by large sclerite, frequently larger than cheliped basis; small ischium present. Pereopods all more­or­less similar, all of unspecialized ‘walking’ type; coxae present on all pereopods; all without spinning glands. Pleopods biramous, with plumose setae, endopod biarticulated in most species. Uropods biramous, endopod multiarticulated, exopod with one or (normally) two articles.

Male: Sexual dimorphism considerable. Antennae narrower than those of female but with same number of articles; antennule with numerous aesthetascs, particularly on article 4. Mouthparts reduced, non­functional. Cheliped carpus, dactylus and fixed finger greatly enlarged in male.

Remarks: Males usually display more characters that can be used in determination than do the females, especially with regard to cheliped shape, but since protogynous hermaphroditism occurs in Neotanais and since males are uncommon, one cannot rely on male characters alone. Identification of females should not be attempted on any single character, but rather by an extensive list of character combinations as seen in the diagnosis of the species described below, including careful measurements of morphometric characters.