A new species of Dahmsopottekina (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Huntemanniidae) from the western Mediterranean deep sea

Abstract

A new species of the genus Dahmsopottekina is described from the Mediterranean Sea. Dahmsopottekina guilvardi sp. nov. was collected from abyssal habitats at a depth range of 2340–2850 m. Like its congeners, the new species has a vermiform habitus, a highly transformed P1 in both sexes and a plough-like rostrum in the female. Dahmsopottekina guilvardi sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeneric species by the combination of a fused basis and endopodite in P1 of both sexes and the absence of an endopodite in P2–P4 of the female. Dahmsopottekina guilvardi sp. nov. is the second record of a harpacticoid species after its congener D. peruana in which the basis and endopodite of a leg other than the P5, namely the P1, are fused. Furthermore, the new species is the only one among Dahmsopottekina species with a 1-segmented P1 exopodite in the male. Similar to its congeners, D. guilvardi sp. nov. is strongly sexually dimorphic. This is evident through the morphology of most of the cephalic appendages and the reduction of P2–P6 in the female. The results of the present study support the observation that Dahmsopottekina species are sparsely distributed and highly endemic. Nevertheless, our results do not agree with the statement of considerably larger females as the length variability between females is greater than between the two sexes. Despite the morphological characters of the species commensurate with a burrowing mode of life, its presence in sediment traps suggests that D. guilvardi sp. nov. is an active ‘swimmer’.