Syscenus Harger 1880
Creators: name: Bruce, Niel L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1997
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Isopoda
Aegidae
Syscenus

description: Genus <i>Syscenus</i> Harger <i>Syscenus</i> Harger, 1880: 387.- Sars, 1899: 66.- Richardson, 1905: 212.- Stebbing, 1924: 9.- Wahrberg, 1930: 24.­ Nierstrasz &amp; Schuurmans Steckhoven Jf., 1930: 77.­ Schultz, 1969: 196.- Menzies &amp; George, 1972: 12.- Kussakin, 1979: 269. <i>Harponyx</i> Sars, 1882: 60 (type species <i>Harponyx pranizoides</i> Sars, 1882). <i>Rocinela.- Bovallius,</i> 1885: 4 (not <i>Rocinela</i> Leach, 1818). <i>Syscenus.- Stephensen,</i> 1948: 41. <b>Type species.</b> <i>Syscenus infelix</i> Harger, 1880, by monotypy. Gender neuter. Diagnosis. Body elongate, about 3 to 4 times as long as wide. Cephalon without eyes, anterior margin forming median point. Coxae present on pereonites 2-7, those of pereonites 4-7 shorter than respective segment, not posteriorly produced. Pleon abruptly narrower than pleon, about 30-40% BL; pleonites all visible, becoming progressively wider towards posterior, with free lateral margins; pleonites 3 -5 lateral margins produced to form an acute point. Pleotelson large, as long or longer than pleon, usually with caudomedial point. Pleonal sternite present anterior to pleopod 1 peduncles. Antennule peduncle 3-articulate, antenna peduncle 5- articulate; flagellae of both not extending to pleon. Frontal lamina, clypeus and labrum present. Mandible with unicuspid incisor; molar process and spine row absent; palp 3-articulate. Maxillule slender, styliform, with 5 hooked, terminal spines; reduced medial lobe present. Maxilla lateral lobe present, with 3 recurved terminal spines. Maxilliped 4 articulate, article 3 with 2-3 recurved spines, article 4 with 1 recurved spine; endite absent. Pereopods 1 -3 robust; distal margins of ischium to merus with long simple setae; dactylus prehensile, strongly recurved, longer than propodus. Pereopods 4- 7 becoming progressively longer; ischium to propodus provided with spines and abundant simple setae; dactylus shorter than propodus, weakly recurved. Pleopods 1 and 2, both rami with PMS; pleopods 3 -5 endopods with reduced setae (pleopod 3) or naked, distinctly smaller than exopods; coupling hooks present on peduncles of pleopods 1 -5; pleopods not extending beyond pleotelson lateral margins. Uropods flat, lamellar; endopod longer than exopod. Remarks. The genus is readily separated from all others of the family except <i>Xenuraega</i> by the pleon being abruptly narrower than the pereonite 7. <i>Syscenus</i> and <i>Xenuraega</i> are readily differentiated by <i>Syscenus</i> having a frontal lamina and lamellar uropods with both rami prominent, while <i>Xenuraega</i> lacks a frontal lamina and has a filamentous uropodal exopod and a stub-like endopod. Several accounts illustrate the maxilliped as having only three articles (Harger 1883; Sars, 1899; Menzies &amp; George, 1972; Monod, 1973; Nunomura, 1981). Examination of Atlantic specimens of <i>Syscenus infelix</i> (ZMUC CRU2073-2076) show that a small fourth maxilliped article (as illustrated here in Fig. 2G) is in fact present. The generic diagnosis given here is based on the type species and the new species described herein. The extent of character variation within the genus is not possible to assess as the remaining species are inadequately described. Species of the genus have been recorded at depths between 146 and 3260 m. Species included <i>Syscenus atlanticus</i> Kononenko, 1988. This species has been recorded from a single North Atlantic location at a depth between 810-860 m. It is not possible to characterise this species against other congeneric species, although the original figures suggest that it differs from <i>Syscenus infelix</i> in having a broadly rounded pleotelson, and far longer antennal flagellae, supported by the examination of previously unreported material (ZMUC CRU2077). <i>Syscenus infelix</i> Harger, 1880. The type species and the most widely recorded species of the genus. The type locality is " 15 miles northeast of Cape Cod," northwestern Atlantic (Harger 1880). The species has been reported from depths between 146 and 1117 m; records are from the northeastern and northwestern North Atlantic (Richardson, 1905), Japan (Richardson, 1909) the Philippines (Richardson, 1910), New Caledonia (Monod, 1973) and South Africa (Stebbing, 1924). Given the differences noted between Japanese and Atlantic specimens, the condition of the Philippine specimen, and lack of detail in the early records, confirmation of all these localities is required. <i>Syscenus intermedius</i> Richardson, 1910. Known only from the Philippines, Albatross Station 5301. <i>Syscenus latus</i> Richardson, 1909. Known only from Japan, taken at a depth of 742 m, southwest of Koshika Island, c. 31°39'N 129°20 -23'E. <i>Syscenus pacificus</i> Nunomura, 1981. Known only from the East China Sea, 660- 990 m. Nunomura (1981, p. 16) apparently believed that he was describing only the second species of the genus, overlooking the publications of Richardson (1909, 1910) and Menzies &amp; George (1972). The illustrations of Nunomura (1981) show striking points of resemblance to S. <i>latus</i> from the same area and the validity of S. <i>pacificus</i> is open to question. <i>Syscenus peruanus</i> Menzies &amp; George, 1972. The species is based on a juvenile with eyes, taken from the Peru-Chile Trench at a depth of 3254-3260 m.
description: Published as part of <i>Bruce, Niel L., 1997, A new species of Syscenus Harger, 1880 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Aegidae) from eastern Australia, with a revised diagnosis of the genus, pp. 113-120 in Records of the Australian Museum 49 (2)</i> on pages 113-114, DOI: 10.3853/j.0067-1975.49.1997.1261, http://zenodo.org/record/4655101
description: {"references": ["Harger, 0., 1880. Report on the marine Isopoda of New England and adjacent waters. Report of the Commissioner for 1878, Part VI. Government Printing Office: Washington, D. C., pp 297 - 462.", "Sars, G. O., 1899. An Account of the Crustacea of Norway. Volume 11. Isopoda. Bergen Museum: Bergen, pp 270.", "Richardson, H., 1905. A monograph on the isopods of North America. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 54: 1 - 727.", "Stebbing, T. R. R., 1924. Crustacea of Natal. Union of South Africa, Fisheries and Biological Survey, Report No. 3, pp 15.", "Wahrberg, R., 1930. Sverige marina och lacustra isopoder. G 6 teborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps-och Vitterhets-samhalles Handlinger, Femte F 61 jder, Ser B, 1, no 9: 1 - 76, pis 1 - 18.", "Schultz, G. A., 1969. How to know the Marine Isopod Crustaceans. Wm. C. Brown Company, Dubuque, Iowa, pp 359.", "Menzies, R. l, &amp; R. Y. George, 1972. Isopoda Crustacea of the Peru-Chile Trench Anton Bruun Report 9: 1 - 124.", "Kussakin, O. G., 1979. Marine and brackish-water Isopoda of cold and temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Flabellifera. Akademy of Science, USSR, Leningrad, pp 470. [In Russian.]", "Sars, G. O., 1882. Oversigt af Norges crustaceer med forlobige bem 1 erkninger over de nye eller mindre bekjendte arter. Christiania Videnskabelige Selsskrift Forhandlinger 18: 1 - 124, pis I, 11. [The date of publication is often cited as Sars (1883), but the title page of the article states 1882, and that the article was read at a meeting of 13 October; it is also entered in The Zoological Record for 1882.]", "Bovallius, C., 1885. A new isopod from the coast of Sweden. Bihang till Kungligga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlinger 10 (10): 3 - 10.", "Leach, W., 1818. Cymothoades. In F. Cuvier (ed.). Dictionairedes Sciences naturelles, 12: 338 - 354. Paris.", "Stephensen, K., 1948. Storkrebs. IV. Ringkrebs. 3. Tanglus (marine isopoder) og tanaider. Denmarks Fauna 53: 1 - 187.", "Harger, 0., 1883. Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, on the East Coast of the United States, during the summer of 1880, by the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer \" Blake, \" Commander J. R. Bartlett, U. S. N., commanding. Bulletin of the Musuem of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 11: 91 - 104, pis 1 -- 4.", "Monod, T., 1973. Sur quelques crustaces Neo-Caledoniens de profondeur. Cahiers de O. R. S. T. O. M., serie Oceanographique 21: 117 - 131.", "Nunomura, N., 1981. Three species of flabelliferan isopods (Crustacea) from the East China Sea, including the description of a new species of Syscenus. Bulletin of the Toyama Science Museum 12: 13 - 18.", "Kononenko, A. F., 1988. A new parasitic isopode Syscenus atlanticus n. sp. (lsopoda, Aegidae) from the Atlantic Ocean. Parazitologiya (Leningrad) 22: 266 - 269. [In Russian.]", "Richardson, H., 1909. Isopods collected in the northwest Pacific by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries Steamer \" Albatross \" in 1906. Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum 37: 75 - 129.", "Richardson, H., 1910. Marine isopods collected in the Philippines by U. S. Fisheries Steamer \" Albatross \" in 1907 - 08. Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Fisheries Document 736: 1 -- 44."]}