Meticonaxius de Man, 1905

Poore And D, Gary C. B., 2015, Micheleidae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Axiidea): new family, generic and species synonymies, three new Australian species, and new records, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 73, pp. 95-105 : 97

Meticonaxius de Man, 1905

Meticonaxius de Man, 1905: 592 .— Poore, 1997: 364–365 (for synonymy).— Sakai, 2011: 305–306.

Meteoraxius Sakai and Türkay, 2012: 731–732 (type species Meteoraxius meteor Sakai and Türkay, 2012 , by original designation). Syn. nov.

Remarks. Meticonaxius has a long synonymy (see Poore, 1997). Sakai and Türkay (2012) compared their new genus and species, Meteoraxius meteor , with Marcusiaxius from which it differs in several features. Unfortunately, they did not compare it with Meticonaxius from which it can not be distinguished. Both genera vary in few characters that might be considered of generic value. The rostrum of species of Meticonaxius is narrower than that of species of Marcusiaxius ; in some the apex is rounded and others acute but the eyes are always visible dorsally, unlike in Marcusiaxius where the broadly rounded rostrum covers the eyes. Meteoraxius meteor lacks setal rows on the carapace; the number recorded throughout the 15 species of both genera ranges from one to three so absence could not be considered of generic value. The species has a moderately developed crista dentata on maxilliped 3; it is absent in Marcusiaxius but variably developed in Meticonaxius species. Meteoraxius meteor has a long maxilliped 3 exopod; is usually rudimentary in these genera but can be as long as half the ischium. Meteoraxius meteor has the same shaped telson, longer than wide, as in all other species of Meticonaxius , different from the short telson of Marcusiaxius species. The uropodal endopod of M. meteor has a triangular apex and the exopod rounded. Similar uropods are seen in some species of Meticonaxius but in others the exopod ends more squarely. Meteoraxius post-dates and was not included in the review of Sakai (2011).The genus is here synonymised with Meticonaxius .

Sakai (2011) excluded Meticonaxius longispina ( Stebbing, 1920) and M. microps ( Bouvier, 1905) from this genus, placing them in Marcusiaxius instead. He argued that the rostrum in both species ‘is not so acutely triangular as in Meticonaxius , but obtusely triangular as in Marcusiaxius .’ While the rostrums of these two species are more rounded than in other species of Meticonaxius both have dorsally visible eyes, broad uropodal endopod and more distally placed tooth on the fixed finger, all characteristic of this genus. The rostrum of species of Marcusiaxius can not be referred to as ‘obtusely triangular’.

Poore (1997) provided a key to eight species of Meticonaxius . Lin (2006) added another and tabulated characters of nine species. Sakai and Türkay (2014) redescribed and illustrated M. coeca ( Balss, 1921) from Tanzania and removed it from synonymy of M. monodon de Man, 1905 from Indonesia. Species now number ten.

Meticonaxius is represented in Australia only by M. soela Sakai, 1992 at 300 m in the Coral Sea.