Distribution of genus Jassa (Amphipoda, Ischyroceridae) in the Bay of Campeche, SW Gulf of Mexico, with a description of a new deepwater species

Abstract

The genus Jassa includes 36 species distributed mainly in shallow waters as biofoulers on human-made structures or associated with living or inert soft bottom substrata worldwide. During the oceanographic cruise "2013-PEMEX Exploración y Produción, Regiones Marinas" in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, several benthic amphipods of the genus Jassa were collected in sediments of both the continental shelf and the deep benthic sea. The present study examined the geographic and bathymetric distribution of Jassa in the Campeche Salt Basin, SW Gulf of Mexico, and described a new Jassa species collected below the isobath of 200 m. The species Jassa marmorata and Jassa morinoi were recorded mainly in front of the Usumacinta/Grijalva River Basin and Terminos Lagoon Delta, between 21 and 55 m depth. In contrast, the new species was recorded in the Bay of Campeche and the Campeche Canyon, below 450 m depth. For J. morinoi, it is the first register in the Gulf of Mexico. The new species increased the number of Jassa species documented worldwide to 37, and that of the deep-sea benthic amphipods from the Gulf of Mexico to 19 species.