Urothoe Dana, 1852

Azman, B. A. R. & Melvin, C. W. H., 2011, Two new species of Urothoe (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Gammaridea) from the East Johor Islands Archipelago, Malaysia, ZooKeys 87, pp. 43-62 : 44-45

Urothoe Dana, 1852

Type species.

Urothoe irrostratus Dana, 1853, original designation.

Diagnosis.

Molar process moderately to strongly developed. Gnathopods weak, subequal, variously subchelate. Pereopod 5 distinctly 7-segmented. Pereopods 6 and 7 subsimilar in form and size, strongly fossorial. Pereopod 7 not of phoxocephalid form, basis not shield-like. Abdomen not sharply narrowing or flexed at urosome. Uropod 3 rami subequal; long and slender. Telson deeply cleft.

Species composition.

Urothoe contains fourty-five species: Urothoe abbreviata Sars, 1879; Urothoe atlantica Bellan-Santini & Menioui, 2004; Urothoe bairdii Bate, 1862; Urothoe brevicornis Bate, 1862; Urothoe carda Imbach, 1969; Urothoe chosani Hirayama, 1992; Urothoe corsica Bellan-Santini, 1965; Urothoe convexa Kim & Kim, 1992; Urothoe coxalis Griffiths, 1974; Urothoe cuspis Imbach 1969; Urothoe dentata Schellenberg, 1925; Urothoe denticulata Gurjanova, 1951; Urothoe elegans Bate, 1857; Urothoe elizae Cooper & Fincham, 1974; Urothoe falcata Schellenberg, 1931; Urothoe gelasina Imbach, 1969; Urothoe gelasina ambigua Hirayama, 1988; Urothoe grimaldii Chevreux, 1895; Urothoe grimaldii japonica Hirayama, 1988; Urothoe irrostrata Dana, 1853; Urothoe hesperiae Conradi, Lopez-Gonzalez & Bellan-Santini 1995; Urothoe intermedia Bellan-Santini & Ruffo, 1986; Urothoe latifrons Ren 1991; Urothoe leone Reid, 1951; Urothoe marina (Bate, 1857); Urothoe marionis Bellan-Santini & Ledoyer, 1986; Urothoe oniscoides (K.H. Barnard, 1932); Urothoe orientalis Gurjanova, 1938; Urothoe pestai Spandl, 1923; Urothoe pinnata K.H. Barnard, 1955; Urothoe platydactyla Rabindranath, 1971; Urothoe platypoda Griffiths, 1974; Urothoe poseidonis Reibisch, 1905; Urothoe poucheti Chevreux, 1888; Urothoe pulchella (Costa, 1853); Urothoe rotundifrons J.L. Barnard, 1962; Urothoe ruber Giles, 1888; Urothoe serrulidactyla K.H. Barnard, 1955; Urothoe sibuensis sp. n.; Urothoe spinidigitus Walker, 1904; Urothoe tinggiensis sp. n.; Urothoe tumorosa Griffiths, 1974; Urothoe varvarini Gurjanova, 1953; Urothoe vemae J.L. Barnard, 1962; Urothoe wellingtonensis Cooper, 1974.

Remarks.

Dana established the genus Urothoe in 1852 with the description of Urothoe irrostrata , which was originally classified under the family Haustoriidae . However, in 1978, Bousfield did a thorough revision on the phylogenetic classification of the genus Urothoe and it was decided that the genus Urothoe was to be moved to the Urothoidae family. The genus Urothoe is closely related to Urothoides Stebbing, 1891, but differs in not presenting the phoxocephalid-like protruding shield of basis on pereopod 7 ( Barnard and Drummond 1979). There are about 45 species of Urothoe recorded to date (including the two present species), ten species were found from the South China Sea while the others were recorded from the waters of northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Australia and the North East Atlantic.