Makraleptochelia, Araújo-Silva, Catarina De L. & Larsen, Kim, 2012

Araújo-Silva, Catarina De L. & Larsen, Kim, 2012, Tanaidacea (Tanaidacea: Crustacea) from Brazil. IV. A new genus and two new species from the family Leptocheliidae, Zootaxa 3523, pp. 1-19 : 2-3

Genus Makraleptochelia n. gen.

Diagnosis. Female. Body robust. Carapace dorsal suture absent, about five to six times as long as wide. Eyes present. Pereonites 4 and 5 longest. Antennule with four articles (terminal article reduced); proximal article stout, about 1.8 times as long as wide. Antenna without distal spiniform setae on articles 2 or 3. Maxilliped endite with three distal spiniform complex setae; basis with six distal simple setae. Cheliped sclerite with three proximal simple setae; basis with one specialized seta arising from sub-dorsodistal tubercle; merus with 13–14 ventral simple setae; carpus outer ventrodistal margin extended as a ‘shield’ overlapping propodus. Pereopodal ischia with two simple setae. Pereopod 1 unguis about 1.6 times as long as dactylus. Pereopods 4–6 unguis incompletely fused with dactylus. Pleopod basal article short and naked. Uropod endopod with four articles; exopod uniarticulate.

Male: body extremely elongate, about 18.5 times as long as wide. Cephalothorax with eight short simple setae on lateral margins, eyes present. Pereon naked, about 15 times as long as wide. Pleon short, about 10% of total body length. Antennule with multiple serially repeating articles densely covered with aesthetascs ventrally. Antenna of six articles (terminal article reduced). Maxilliped basis with six – seven distal simple setae; palp naked, biarticulate. Epignath elongate, naked. Cheliped sclerite with three proximal simple setae; merus with 13–14 simple ventral setae; carpus robust, outer ventrodistal margin slightly covering proximal part of propodus; propodus subchelate; dactylus with five short spiniform setae on inner margin. Pereopods 1–6 ischia with two ventral simple setae. Pleopods with basal article naked. Uropod endopod of three articles; exopod of one article.

Type species. Makraleptochelia potiguara n. sp.

Gender. Feminine.

Etymology. The genus is derived from Greek Makra = long, + Leptochelia , due the elongate body of the male.

Generic remarks. Makraleptochelia is mainly separated from other genera by the extremely elongate body shape of the male; despite the female of Makraleptochelia sharing a combination of characters with species of Konarus and Parakonarus , which suggest that this species could be a ‘link’ between these two genera, they can be separated by having: 1) the carapace dorsal suture absent (present in both Parakonarus and Konarus ), 2) the six simple setae on anterolateral margins of cephalothorax (naked, or with two to three in Konarus and Parakonarus ), 3) the maxilliped basis with six (six-seven in males) distal simple setae (five or four in Parakonarus and Konarus ), 4) the cheliped merus with at least 13 simple setae (eight to 11 in Konarus and Parakonarus ), 5) the uropod endopod with four articles (five or six in Parakonarus and six in Konarus ); also the male cheliped propodus with more than 20 inner distal spiniform setae (less than 20 spiniform setae in Parakonarus ), and the pereopod 1 merus with one spiniform seta (one simple seta in Parakonarus ).

Pseudoleptochelia also have a subchelate male cheliped and no dorsal suture on the female carapace; however, they can be easily separated by Pseudoleptochelia species having only few setae on the cheliped merus and the antenna articles 2 and 3 with spiniform setae on distal margins, as well as other characters.

The presence of six (or six–seven in male) simple setae on the maxilliped basis of M. potiguara n. sp. is rare in the family Leptocheliidae , and has only been reported for the females of Leptochelia bispinosa Guţu, 2011a and Neoleptochelia javanensis Guţu, 2011b , the former also showed variation in the setal number between the two endites.