Cuniculomaera grata Tandberg & Jazdzewska 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: (SOSA), Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance
name: Brandt, Angelika
name: Chen, Chong
name: Engel, Laura
name: Esquete, Patricia
name: Horton, Tammy
name: Jażdżewska, Anna M.
name: Johannsen, Nele
name: Kaiser, Stefanie
name: Kihara, Terue C.
name: Knauber, Henry
name: Kniesz, Katharina
name: Landschoff, Jannes
name: Lörz, Anne-Nina
name: Machado, Fabrizio M.
name: Martínez-Muñoz, Carlos A.
name: Riehl, Torben
name: Serpell-Stevens, Amanda
name: Sigwart, Julia D.
name: Tandberg, Anne Helene S.
name: Tato, Ramiro
name: Tsuda, Miwako
name: Vončina, Katarzyna
name: Watanabe, Hiromi K.
name: Wenz, Christian
name: Williams, Jason D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Amphipoda
Maeridae
Cuniculomaera
Cuniculomaera grata

description: Cuniculomaera grata Tandberg & Jażdżewska sp. nov.
Maeridae: Brandt et al. (2022): 107, Table 5.18; p 109, fig. 5.60 M.
“ maerid amphipod ”: Brandt et al. (2022): 131, text.
Maera sp.: Brandt et al. (2023): 4, text.
“ maerid amphipod ”: Brandt et al. (2023): 4, fig. 2.
Materials
Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: SMF- 61334; recordNumber: AB 447; recordedBy: Anne Helene S. Tandberg; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; preparations: EtOH 96 %; otherCatalogNumbers: 1-10 - Maer _ 2022 _ 1; previousIdentifications: Maeridae; associatedReferences: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9867; associatedSequences: BOLD DS-CUNIFOS | GenBank: PP 131298; occurrenceID: B8A04BB2-2DCE-5212-8BDF-AB6AC6D12CD7; Taxon: scientificName: Cuniculomaera grata Tandberg & Jażdżewska; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Malacostraca; order: Amphipoda; family: Maeridae; genus: Cuniculomaera; specificEpithet: grata; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: Tandberg & Jażdżewska; Location: higherGeography: Northern Pacific Ocean; waterBody: Bering Sea; country: USA; locality: Bering Sea AleutBio expedition station SO- 293 _ 1-10; minimumDepthInMeters: 3504; maximumDepthInMeters: 3516; locationRemarks: endpoint 54 ° 32.495 ' N 172 ° 32.014 ' W, 3504 m depth, water temperature 1.6 ° C; verbatimLatitude: 54 ° 31.419 ' N; verbatimLongitude: 172 ° 36.594 ' W; georeferenceProtocol: Ship GPS; Identification: identifiedBy: A. H. S. Tandberg; dateIdentified: 2023; Event: samplingProtocol: Epibenthic sled with camera (C-EBS); eventDate: 27 / 07 / 2022; Record Level: institutionCode: SMF; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen
Description
Body dorsally smooth (Fig. 15), elongate with short coxae. Length 24 mm.
Head (Fig. 16 C) shorter than deep, cephalic lobes rounded, eye small (0.5 x height of A 1 insert) and roundish. A 1 (Figs 15, 16 A) as long as body; art 2 longer than art 1 which is longer than art 3; acc flag 8 - articulate and ¼ of flagellum length, all art with 2 short setae; flagellum with approximately 40 art, short thin setae on each. A 2 (Fig. 16 B) half the length of A 1, art 4 and 5 subequal in length, both with several thin setae; flagellum 15 - articulate, all art with several short setae. Lbr (Fig. 16 D) symmetric. Md (Fig. 16 E, F) molar triturative; palp 3 - articulate, art 2 longer than art 3 which is longer than art 1, art 3 is straight, art 2 – art 3 setose; incisor smooth and bifurcate; 11 raker setae decreasing in thickness from incisor towards molar; lacinia mobilis on right Md. Mx 1 (Fig. 16 G, H) inner plate subtriangulate, bushy setae distally; outer plate elongate and blunt with 7 cusped setae distally, palp 2 - articulate with 6 long and 5 short straight setae distally on art 2. Mx 2 (Fig. 16 I) inner and outer lobe subequal, inner lobe strongly setose along inner margin. Lbi (Fig. 16 J) slightly notched, symmetrical. Mxp (Fig. 16 K) inner plate totally separate, distal margin concave and heavily setose; outer plate reaching ⅔ of palp art 2 sensory setae along distal and inner margin; palp art 3 4 x as long as art 2, heavily setose inner margin; dactylus ½ art 3 length.
Pereon: All coxae shown on Fig. 15 (habitus photo). P 1 (Fig. 17 A and C) C 1 (Fig. 16 C) with small rounded extension on distal anterior corner; basis straight, anterior margin with long setae; ischium and merus short with distal margins setose; carpus suboval, sensory setae (Fig. 17 C) along posterior margin; propodus suboval, palmar corner weakly defined by strong setae, palm and hind margin strongly setose, palm oblique; dactylus strong and sharp. P 2 (Fig. 17 B and C) slightly larger than P 1; C 2 (Fig. 16 C) rounded with anterior margin bulging, smooth distal margin; basis straight; ischium and merus short; carpus subtriangulate heavily setose with sensory setae (Fig. 17 C) along posterior margin; propodus suboval, palm oblique and weakly serrate with palmar corner defined by 3 large setae, hind margin and palm with sensory setae, along hind margin in tufts; dactylus sharp, inner margin with 6 short setae. P 3 (Fig. 17 D) and P 4 (Fig. 17 E) straight long and thin, longer than P 1 and P 2, dactyli with sensory setae. P 5 – P 7 only known from in situ photo (Fig. 14) and video, where they are clearly longer than P 1 – P 4, straight and slim.
Pleon: Ep 1 – Ep 3 (Fig. 17 F) all smooth, Ep 1 posterodistal corner with rounded extension, Ep 2 posterodistal corner with small rounded tooth, Ep 3 posterodistal corner medium-sized sharp tooth.
Urosome: Smooth (Fig. 15), U 1 (Fig. 17 H) peduncle with spur 1 / 6 length of rami, rami of equal length, slim, short setae along outer margins. U 2 (Fig. 15) peduncle half length of U 1 peduncle, rami similar length to U 1 rami. U 3 (Fig. 14) longer than U 1 and U 2, rami similar length, wide and setose. T (Fig. 17 G) deeply (80 %) cleft, gaping, lobes thin with slightly concave inner margin, two short teeth at tip, one strong seta at each tip.
Colour in vivo (Fig. 14): light pink.
Diagnosis
As for the genus.
Etymology
The Latin feminine noun grata, meaning " favourite ", alludes to the term " favourite burrows " given originally to the strange sediment constructions recorded on the sea bottom by the members of AleutBio expedition while watching and analysing the video footages from the Bering Sea. Now we know they were constructed by the presently-described species, so we call it favourite as well.
Taxon discussion
See discussion for the genus.
Notes
Methods
During the AleutBio expedition to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Trench during summer 2022 (Brandt et al. 2022), a visual inspection of the seafloor using the video- and photo platform OFOS (Ocean Floor Observation System) documented several series of burrows in the soft sediments of the Bering Sea. Thorough examinations of the videos and photos showed that these burrows were connected below the seafloor surface and it was suggested that these tunnels were created by amphipods (Brandt et al. 2023). The specific amphipod was designated, but not formally described until now.
The epibenthic sled equipped with camera (C-EBS (Brandt et al. 2013)) at AleutBio Station SO- 293-1 - 10 contained one specimen - confirmed with OFOS photo of an amphipod in a burrow (Fig. 1) to most possibly be the burrow maker. Material from EBS cod-end was immediately sieved (1 mm) in a cold room (4 ° C) and examined through a cold chain (Riehl et al. 2014 b) before a pleopod was removed for genetic analysis and the remaining specimen was fixed on 96 % undenatured ethanol before storage at 4 ° C until morphological examination. The specimen was photographed using a Canon EOS 5 after fixation due to time restraints onboard and re-photographed using a Leica photography and stacking system (LAS-X), dissected and drawn from glycerol slides using a Leica M 125 C stereoscope and drawn with a camera lucida fitted on a Leica DM 2500 LED (facilities of SOSA Senckenberg, Frankfurt). The drawings were inked using Adobe Illustrator (version CC 2023).
The DNA extraction from the described individual was performed on board with 70 μl InstaGene ™ Matrix (BIO-RAD). The digestion was done at 56 ° C for 40 min. The DNA barcoding fragment of cytochrome- c - oxidase subunit I gene (COI; ca. 670 bp) was amplified using LCO 1490 - JJ (CHACWAAYCATAAAGATATYGG) and HCO 2198 - JJ (AWACTTCVGGRTGVCCAAARAATCA) primers (Astrin and Stüben 2008) with DreamTaq Green PCR Mastermix (Thermo Scientific) and reaction conditions following Hou et al. (2007). Sequencing was done bidirectionally using the Applied Biosystems 3730 xl capillary sequencer by Macrogen Europe, the Netherlands. Sequences were edited using Geneious 10.1. 2 leading to a fragment of 658 bp (excluding primers). The sequences were blasted using default parameters on NCBI BLAST and translated into amino-acid sequences to confirm that no stop codons were present. The sequence was included in the Barcode of Life Data System database (Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007) in the project devoted to Amphipoda collected during the AleutBio cruise and is available in the dedicated dataset: DS-CUNIFOS (http://boldsystems.org/index.php/MAS_Management_DataConsole?codes=DS-CUNIFOS doi: dx. doi. org / 10.5883/DS-CUNIFOS) as well as in GenBank (Acc. No. PP 131298).
The holotype is deposited in the crustacean collections of Senckenberg Naturmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany, with the collections registration-number SMF- 61334. The video-material is stored in the same institution. As the species is so different from other genera, the comparison was performed against the available literature for the different genera and for the family Maeridae (e. g., Barnard and Karaman 1991, Krapp-Schickel and Jarrett 2000, Krapp-Schickel 2008, Ariyama et al. 2020). The description follows the terminologies presented in Krapp-Schickel (2008).
description: Published as part of (SOSA), Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, Brandt, Angelika, Chen, Chong, Engel, Laura, Esquete, Patricia, Horton, Tammy, Jażdżewska, Anna M., Johannsen, Nele, Kaiser, Stefanie, Kihara, Terue C., Knauber, Henry, Kniesz, Katharina, Landschoff, Jannes, Lörz, Anne-Nina, Machado, Fabrizio M., Martínez-Muñoz, Carlos A., Riehl, Torben, Serpell-Stevens, Amanda, Sigwart, Julia D., Tandberg, Anne Helene S., Tato, Ramiro, Tsuda, Miwako, Vončina, Katarzyna, Watanabe, Hiromi K., Wenz, Christian & Williams, Jason D., 2024, Ocean Species Discoveries 1 – 12 — A primer for accelerating marine invertebrate taxonomy, pp. e 128431 in Biodiversity Data Journal 12 on page e128431, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.12.e128431