New Species and Host Associations of Commensal Leucothoid Amphipods from Coral Reefs in Florida and Belize (Crustacea:Amphipoda)

Authors

James Darwin Thomas, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Kristine N. Klebba, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Zootaxa

ISSN

1175-5326

Publication Date

5-31-2007

Keywords

Amphipods, Commensal, Eusocial, Coral reefs, Marine biodiversity, Sponges, Tunicates, Ascidians, Gari’funa

Abstract

Six new amphipod species in the genus Leucothoe from the tropical western Atlantic Ocean are described and illustrated. Extensive field collecting and specialized underwater collecting techniques have documented 43 new invertebrate host records for these new taxa. Four of these new species inhabit interior canals of sponges; Leucothoe barana n.sp., Leucothoe garifunae n.sp., Leucothoe saron n.sp., and Leucothoe ubouhu n.sp. A remarkable new species, Leucothoe flammosa n.sp., nestles in the gills of seven species of bivalve mollusks. A single species, Leucothoe wuriti n.sp., appears restricted to the branchial chamber of two species of solitary ascidians. Detailed illustrations and scanning electron microscopy enables comparison of ultrastructure details. More precise taxonomic character morphologies are also presented thus allowing improved taxonomic precision within the family Leucothoidae.

Volume

1494

First Page

1

Last Page

44

Comments

©2007 Magnolia Press

NSUWorks Citation

James Darwin Thomas and Kristine N. Klebba. 2007. New Species and Host Associations of Commensal Leucothoid Amphipods from Coral Reefs in Florida and Belize (Crustacea:Amphipoda) .Zootaxa : 1 -44. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/566.