Cristapseudes omercooperi ( Larwood, 1954 )

Bamber, Roger N, Bird, Graham, Błażewicz-Paszkowycz, Magdalena & Galil, Bella, 2009, Tanaidaceans (Crustacea: Malacostraca: Peracarida) from soft-sediment habitats off Israel, Eastern Mediterranean, Zootaxa 2109, pp. 1-44 : 9-10

Cristapseudes omercooperi ( Larwood, 1954)

Kalliapseudes omercooperi Bäcescu, 1961 , 162–167, figs 65–77. C. omercooperi Bäcescu 1980 b, 360–367, figs 1, 2.

Material examined. 2 females, station NMI H3, 32º43.360’N 034º56.852’E, 9.7 m depth, 18 August 2005; 989 specimens (NHM.2008.4699–4708) and 450 specimens ( TAU AR 28438), including males, females and juveniles, station NMI H27, 31º41.634’N 034º32.763’E, 20 m depth, 17 August 2005; 1 female, station NMI H28, 31º41.328’N 034º33.326’E, 9.6 m depth, 24 August 2005; 1150 specimens (NHM.2008.4719–4728) and 1003 specimens ( TAU AR 28440), including males, females and juveniles, station NMI H27, 20 August 2006. 1 female, NMI H13, 32 0 09.524’N 34 0 47.211’E, 10.2 m depth, 0 8 August 2007; 1 specimen, NMI H16, 32 0 06.394’N 34 0 45.976’E, 11.8 m depth, 0 8 August 2007; 2 specimens, NMI H24, 31 0 48.195’N 34 0 37.458’E, 11.0 m depth, 0 8 August 2007; 112 specimens (NHM.2008.4709–4718) and 165 specimens ( TAU AR 28439), including males, brooding females and juveniles, NMI H27, 0 2 August 2007; all samples medium to fine sand. 2 females, station AGAN 2, 31º51.603’N 034º39.171’E, 12.3 m depth, 24 May 2006; 1 female, station AGAN 11, 31º51.014’N 034º38.992’E, 10.1 m depth, 24 May 2006; 3 specimens, AGAN 11, 11 October 2007; all coarse sand with shell grit.

714 specimens (NHM.2008.4729–4738), including juveniles, brooding females and males, HMA DA9, 31° 51.630’N 034° 38.558’E, 21 m depth; 509 specimens (NHM.2008.4739–4748), including juveniles, brooding females and males, HMA DA18, 31° 52.059’N 034° 38.151’E, 28.1 m depth; 847 specimens ( TAU AR 28441), including juveniles, brooding females and males, HMA DA19, 31° 52.447’N 034° 38.468’E, 27.2 m depth; 427 specimens (NHM.2008.4749–4758), including juveniles, brooding females and males, HMA DA34, 31° 52.367’N 034° 38.573’E, 25.5 m depth; 1 male, HMA DA61, 31° 51.103’N 034° 38.826’E, 13 m depth; 1023 specimens ( TAU AR 28442), including juveniles, brooding females and males, HMA DA64, 31° 52.648’N 034° 38.509’E, 27.9 m depth; all 20 October 2007.

Remarks. Previous records for this species are from the northern Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, Suez (type locality), and “west of Gaza ” (see Sieg, 1983). The present material represent the first records for this species since that publication. Apart from a few scattered specimens, the species was notably abundant at station NMI H27 to the north of the survey area in Haifa Bay (where Apseudes mediterraneus was the only other tanaidacean present), densities reaching>7,000 per m2, and at five of the HMA DA stations to the south of the survey area, with densities reaching 3,400 per m2. These southern stations are in the same region as the site of the only previous discovery of this species in the Mediterranean by Băcescu (1961). Some recent sampling in early 2008 off Egypt (Bamber, unpubl.) found dense numbers of this species patchily localized off Alexandria.

Species of the Kalliapseudidae in the broader vicinity of the Mediterranean occur off the west African coast as far north as Mauritania, and in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. It seems apparent that C. omercooperi has reached the Mediterranean though the Suez Canal.

The sex ratio of the large H27 sample in 2005 was close to 1:1 (with a similar third of the material being juveniles).