Paranoplodelphys simplex Boxshall & Marchenkov, 2007, n. sp.
Creators: name: Boxshall, Geoff A.
name: Marchenkov, Andrey
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2007
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Maxillopoda
Cyclopoida
Notodelphyidae
Paranoplodelphys
Paranoplodelphys simplex

description: Paranoplodelphys simplex n. sp.
Type material: Holotype female, 2 paratype females. Registration nos: MNHN-Cp2317 (Holotype in alcohol), MNHN-Cp2318 (paratype female in alcohol), BMNH 2006.1188. (1 paratype female in alcohol).
Type Locality: Mescha island, Djibouti: collected at depth of 0–20 m, in 1996
Host: Didemnum dicolla Monniot and Monniot, 1999 [MNHN reg. no. of host: A2 DID C 397-401]
Locality in host: within the common tunic between the zooids (F. Monniot, pers. comm.).
Etymology: the species name refers to the extreme reduction in limbs exhibited by this species.
Description: Adult female body (Fig. 5 A–D) highly transformed, vermiform and lacking external segmentation: indistinctly divided into 3 regions, cephalosome, metasome and urosome, by shallow furrows. Body length of holotype female 1.63 mm (ranging from 1.63–1.70 mm for 3 studied specimens). Cephalosome with broad, rounded frontal margin; bearing single pair of appendages (antennules) ventrolaterally, and strongly developed labrum. Rostrum absent. Metasome more or less cylindrical, but tapering posteriorly; bearing 2 pairs of legs (legs 1 and 2). Developing eggs in uterus visible through body wall (Fig. 5 C). Metasome lacking expressed segmentation but with visible cuticular folds indicating division into 4 somites; fourth somite bearing urosome inserted dorsally. Urosome (Fig. 5 E) reduced, unsegmented, incorporating caudal rami represented by cluster of caudal setae (Fig. 5 E). Entire body surface densely ornamented with relatively short setules, similar to those of A. africana (cf. Fig. 1 D).
Antennules (Fig. 5 A–B, D) extremely reduced, represented by pair of small conical protrusions located near anterolateral corners of labrum. No other cephalosomal appendages observed.
Labrum (Fig. 5 A–B, D) massive, conical, with rounded posterior tip reaching anterior border of base of leg 2. Surface of labrum ornamented with setules.
Legs 1 and 2 only present (Fig. 5 A–B, D); legs 3 and 4 absent. Legs 1 and 2 originating close to each other, just behind cephalosome. Leg 1 biramous, with common protopodal base bearing unsegmented, conical rami; endopodal lobe elongate, massive, exopodal lobe very reduced. Leg 2 uniramous, unsegmented, present as conical process half as long as endopodal lobe of leg 1.
Leg 5 (Fig. 5 E–F) well developed as simple lobes armed with 2 setae located near anterior margin of urosome: 1 seta apical, other subapical.
Male unknown.
Remarks: The new species can be distinguished from all other species attributed to the Brementia -group of genera by extreme reduction: in particular by the absence of a rostrum, the loss of the antenna and all oral appendages, by the decrease in size of the exopodal lobe of leg I, and by the possession of a uniramous leg 2. Without access to developmental stages it is not possible to identify the homology of the remaining ramus on leg 2.
description: Published as part of Boxshall, Geoff A. & Marchenkov, Andrey, 2007, A revision of the Brementia - group of genera (Copepoda: Notodelphyidae), with descriptions of a new genus and four new species, pp. 37-68 in Zootaxa 1459 on pages 49-51, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.176361