Xenocheira

Myers, Alan A., 1998, The Amphipoda (Crustacea) of New Caledonia: Aoridae, Records of the Australian Museum 50 (2), pp. 187-210 : 208

Xenocheira sp.

Xenocheira seurati Ledoyer, 1984 , 41, fig. 19.

Xenocheira? seurati Moore, 1988: 712 , figs. 4-7.

Material examined. NCL-210 (3 66, 9 ~~, 2 immature), NCL­ 219 (5 ~~).

Remarks. Present material agrees well with that described by Moore from Western Australia and by Ledoyer (1984), from New Caledonia. Xenocheira seurati was originally described from the Gambier archipelago by Chevreux (1907, 1908). Moore (1988), examined type specimens of X. seurati , but in part due to the age of the material, was unable to convince himselfthatAustralian and NewCaledonianmaterial was definitely conspecific with Gambier material. He listed several differences between his material and the types and noted the characteristic shape of the pereopod 5 basis, which is very apparent also in our material. Unfortunately type material is missing this appendage.

Schellenberg (1938) recorded a single female specimen, which he attributed to Xenocheira seurati , from Viti Levu, Fiji. As he provided neither descriptionnorfigures, this record remains enigmatic. For the present, we assign our material to theunnamedtaxonfromAustraliaandNewCaledonia, whilst acknowledging that this taxon may later be shown to be synonymous with X. seurati Chevreux.

Lyons & Myers (1990) considered Xenocheira to be polyphyletic and transferred X. fasciata Haswell to Bemlos Shoemaker and X. angusticarpa Ledoyer to Lemboides Stebbing. Thus Xenocheira now includes 2-3 known species: X. seurati Chevreux, X. ? seurati and X. pirloti Moore.

Habitat. Dictyota on dead Acropora and soft mud, 20 m.

Distribution. Western Australia and Ne.w Caledonia.

Acknowledgments. I am grateful to Dr Bertrand Richer de Forges for all his help and hospitality in New Caledonia, and to all the ORSTOM staff, especially Jean-Louis Menou, Georges Bargibant, Pascal Hamel and Stephane Bujan for their assistance in sample collection. The work forms part of a larger survey on the amphipods of New Caledonia carried out jointly with Drs Jim Lowry and Ichiro Tekeuchi. I thank them both for their comradeship during the field work.