Jassa australis ( Haswell, 1879 )

Conlan, Kathleen E., Desiderato, Andrea & Beermann, Jan, 2021, Jassa (Crustacea: Amphipoda): a new morphological and molecular assessment of the genus, Zootaxa 4939 (1), pp. 1-191 : 160

Jassa australis ( Haswell, 1879)

Haswell (1879) collected this species from Port Jackson, Australia and named it Podocerus australis . According to H. Stoddart of the Australian Museum, “the original material of Haswell’s Podocerus australis is missing and the ‘species’ was never collected/recorded again under this name.” (H. Stoddart (AM), personal communication, 6 November 1984). J.L. Barnard (1974) further elaborated on Haswell’s material, indicating that the Australian Museum held four specimens of Haswell’s collection G.5386 under the name Podocerus australis , but these specimens were actually Icilius . This was reiterated by H. Stoddart (AM): “the material referred to in this entry (G. 5386) is Icilius australis , which remains Icilius australis .” (H. Stoddart (AM), personal communication, 6 November 1984).

The British Museum holds specimens (not type) identified as P. australis, Haswell, 1879 by E.J. Miers (NHM 1881:31) that were collected at Port Jackson by Dr. R. Coppinger, aboard H.M.S. Alert. These specimens were examined and found to be J. marmorata . 1881 is the earliest record of J. marmorata in Australia (Table 3). Thus it is possible that Haswell’s illustrated specimens were J. marmorata as well, though J. slatteryi has also been found in Port Jackson (Table 3). Jassa justi has also been found in Australia but is not known from Port Jackson ( Conlan 1990). Haswell’s figure of P. australis shows a male with large, distally acute thumb (posterior margin of the propodus incised for 75% of its length). Large J. marmorata have a long thumb that is squared distally; smaller thumbed males have distally acute thumbs. Large thumbed J. slatteryi have distally acute thumbs but the incision is not as great as shown by Haswell (1879). Since there is no type specimen for Haswell’s P. australis , the name has never been subsequently used, and there is no formal link from P. australis to the genus Jassa , the name Jassa australis ( Haswell, 1879) should be listed as nomen dubium.