Parilia ovata Chen 1984
Creators: name: Ng, Peter K. L.
name: Devi, Suvarna
name: Kumar, Appukuttannair Biju
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Decapoda
Leucosiidae
Parilia
Parilia ovata

description: Parilia ovata Chen, 1984
(Figs. 1C, 3C, 4E, F, 5F, 6C, 7E, F, 8 J–M)
Parilia ovata Chen, 1984: 482, figs. 1–6; Chen, 1989: 235, text fig. 30d; Tan, 1996: 1048; Chen & Sun, 2002: 366, text fig. 163; Ng et al., 2008: 92.
Myra anomala Zarenkov, 1990: 62, fig. 5.
Material examined. 1 male (31.6 × 43.3 mm) (ZRC 2017.219), northwestern Panglao, Bohol, Philippines, coll. J. Arbasto, 2006.
Diagnosis. Carapace longitudinally ovate (Figs. 1C, 3C); dorsal surface smooth (Fig. 3C); branchial regions not swollen laterally and dorsally, lateral margin of carapace entire, smooth (Fig. 3C); dome-shape in frontal view (Fig. 4E); frontal region protruding prominently anteriorly with buccal cavity and third maxillipeds not visible in dorsal view, frontal lobes rounded (Fig. 3C); cardiac spine very long (Fig. 3C); outer surface of third maxillipeds smooth (Figs. 4E, F, 5F); exopod of third maxilliped in adult broad but not foliaceous (Fig. 5F); surfaces of ambulatory legs and chelipeds completely smooth (Figs. 1C, 6C); G1 proportionately shorter, distal part flared, subdistal lateral projection large, very wide, fan-like, laterally flattened (Fig. 8 J–L); female sternopleonal cavity condition not known. South China Sea and Philippines.
Remarks. This is not a common species, with only a few records. The original description was by Chen (1984) from one male and one female specimens from 173 m in the South China Sea, with a subsequent record of a juvenile from the Philippines by Tan (1996). We here confirm the record from the Philippines with the discovery of an adult male from Bohol.
Zarenkov (1990) described Myra anomala from one small juvenile male 12.3 mm in carapace length from Tonkin Bay in northern Vietnam at a depth of 180 m. Galil (2001: 414) noted that this species “does not belong within Myra, as the male abdomen is depicted with an articulate sixth segment.” All Myra species have male pleonal somite 6 completely fused with somite 5 and their G1 structures are very different (Galil, 2001). Galil (2001), however, did not reassign Myra anomala to another genus. Ng et al. (2008) synonymised Myra anomala Zarenkov, 1990, under Parilia ovata Chen, 1984, without comment. From Zarenkov’s (1990: 62, fig. 5-5–10) description and figures, Myra anomala is almost certainly a junior synonym of P. ovata. The carapace of M. anomala (cf. Zarenkov, 1990: fig. 5-5) resembles that of P. ovata (Fig. 3C) except that the lateral tubercles are relatively more prominent which is expected of a juvenile specimen. The exopod of the third maxilliped of M. anomala (Zarenkov, 1990: fig. 5-9) is not as wide as that of the adult (Fig. 5F) but this has also been observed for juvenile P. alcocki in which the structure is proportionately more slender (see earlier). The male pleon of M. anomala has the shape of typical Parilia, with somite 6 and telson free and the surfaces unarmed (Zarenkov, 1990: fig. 5-10); and the fingers of the chela are shorter than the palm (Zarenkov, 1990: fig. 5-7). The G1 of M. anomala is that of a juvenile, being not distinctly elongate, and the subdistal part appears to be damaged, although it appears that there was a lateral projection at that junction (Zarenkov, 1990: fig. 5-6).
Distribution. Parilia ovata was described from the South China Sea (Chen, 1984; Chen & Sun, 2002) but has also been reported from the Philippines (Tan, 1996) and northern Vietnam (Zarenkov, 1990, as Myra anomala). The few specimens of this species have been found at depths between 173–230 m (Chen, 1984; Zarenkov, 1990).
description: Published as part of Ng, Peter K. L., Devi, Suvarna & Kumar, Appukuttannair Biju, 2018, The genus Parilia Wood-Mason, in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891, with description of a new species and establishment of a new genus for P. tuberculata Sakai, 1961 (Crustacea, Brachyura, Leucosiidae), pp. 300-319 in Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 66 on pages 302-304, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4503189