Paracaprella pusilla Mayer 1890
Creators: name: Paz-Ríos, Carlos E.
name: Guerra-García, José M.
name: Ardisson, Pedro-Luis
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Amphipoda
Caprellidae
Paracaprella
Paracaprella pusilla

description: Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890   
(Figure 17)  
 Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890: 41, pl. 1, figs 28–30; pl. 3, figs 45–47; pl. 5, figs 48, 49; pl. 6, fig. 10; 1903: 67, pl. 2, figs 36, 37; pl. 7, fig. 52. Steinberg and Dougherty, 1957: 283–284, figs 16, 19, 24, 30. McCain, 1968: 82–86, figs 41, 42. Serejo, 1998: 381, fig. 7j, l. Guerra-García and Thiel, 2001: 880, fig. 8. Ortiz et al., 2002, fig. 37. Foster, Thomas, et al., 2004: 162, 165, fig. 5. Diaz et al., 2005: 3, 6–7, fig. 13. Guerra-García, Krapp-Schickel, et al., 2006: 175–178, figs 17–19. Winfield, Escobar-Briones, et al., 2007: 30, 47, fig. 16. Bhave and Deshmukh, 2009: 111– 112, figs 1, 2. Guerra-García et al., 2010: 304–305, fig. 8.   
 Caprella nigra Reid, 1951: 283–284, 289, fig. 58.    Material examined   
Station 1, one male, eight females (six ovigerous), CYMX-15- CY. Station 3, one male, one ovigerous female, CYMX-16- CY. Station 10, one ovigerous female, 28 November 2010, CYMX-21- CY. Station 13, 54 males, 63 females (26 ovigerous), 12 juveniles (one male and one female from this station used for figures), CYMX-17- CY. Station 14, 16 males, 22 females (16 ovigerous), CYMX-18- CY. Station 16, 11 males, 11 females (six ovigerous), CYMX-19- CY. Station 18, 89 males, 101 females (47 ovigerous), five juveniles, CYMX-24- CY.   Type locality   
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   Distribution   
Western Atlantic; Chile; southern Spain; tropical west Africa; south Africa; Tanzania; Suez Canal; India; Australia; China; Hawaii (Bhave and Deshmukh 2009; Guerra-García et al. 2010; Ros and Guerra-Garcia 2012).   Records in the Gulf of Mexico   
MEX: Tamaulipas continental shelf (Escobar-Briones and Winfield 2003); Laguna Madre (Barba and Sánchez 2005); Mexican ridges at southwest (Winfield et al. 2006); Celestun; Progreso; Dzilam Bravo; El Cuyo; Yalahau Lagoon (present study). USA: Port Aransas (Steinberg and Dougherty 1957); Port Isabel; Grand Isle; Panama City; St Petersburg; Sarasota Bay (McCain 1968); Louisiana Offshore (Lewbel et al. 1987); Perdido Key (Rakocinski et al. 1996); Choctawhatchee Bay (Martin and Bortone 1997); Biloxi Bay (Pederson and Peterson 2002); Dog Keys Pass; Horn Island Pass (Foster, Thomas, et al. 2004).   Habitat   
 Paracaprella pusilla has been collected from mangrove roots, seagrasses, hydroids and ascidians (McCain 1968), sandy beaches (Rakocinski et al. 1996), artificial reefs (Lewbel et al. 1987; Martin and Bortone 1997), sponges (Serejo 1998), gravel bottoms, ropes, mussels, oysters, sabellariid worm rock (Diaz et al. 2005), and muddy bottoms (Winfield et al. 2006). The depth range reported is shallow water extending to 498 m (Winfield et al. 2006; Winfield and Escobar-Briones 2008; LeCroy et al. 2009).    Remarks   
 Paracaprella pusilla is similar to Paracaprella tenuis (Mayer 1903); however, males of P. pusilla can be distinguished from those of P. tenuis by the large sharp-pointed projection on the anteroventral margin of pereonite 2, the proximal knob on the basis of gnathopod 2 and the presence of setae on the dactylus of gnathopod 2 (McCain 1968).   
 Recently, Ros and Guerra-Garcia (2012) analysed the worldwide distribution of P. pusilla, recording, for the first time, this species in European coastal waters (southern Spain).
description: Published as part of Paz-Ríos, Carlos E., Guerra-García, José M. & Ardisson, Pedro-Luis, 2014, REVIEW ARTICLE Caprellids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from the Gulf of Mexico, with observations on Deutella mayeri, redescription of Metaprotella hummelincki, a taxonomic key and zoogeographical comments, pp. 2517-2578 in Journal of Natural History 48 (41 - 42) on pages 2550-2553, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2014.931481, http://zenodo.org/record/5194444