Marbefia
A new genus of benthic harpacticoid copepod has been named Marbefia to honour the outstanding contributions of MarBEF to our knowledge of marine biodiversity.
Currently this genus consists of only 1 species, which was first described by Hammond in 1968 as Pseudonychocamptus carthyi. Since 1968 this species was recorded only once more in literature and the male had remained unknown. MarBEF scientists now recognised the classification error and renamed it Marbefia carthy.
Marbefia is a small, slender copepod, highly ornamented, with a dense covering of fine hairs. They have 6 pairs of legs, mandibles to ... and antennas to ... . It displays several sexual dimorphisms, with females (0.7 mm)being larger than males (0.58 mm), also the 2nd to forth swimming legs differ between males and females, with males missing the aditional seta (see fig 2).
Marbefia is currently known from the Southern North Sea and the Isles of Scilly.[1] It usually is present in shallow pools under piers and in the presence of jellyfish. [2]
References
- ↑ Heip, C., Hummel, H., van Avesaath, P., Appeltans, W., Arvanitidis, C., Aspden, R., Austen, M., Boero, F., Bouma, TJ., Boxshall, G., Buchholz, F., Crowe, T., Delaney, A., Deprez, T., Emblow, C., Feral, JP., Gasol, JM., Gooday, A., Harder, J., Ianora, A., Kraberg, A., Mackenzie, B., Ojaveer, H., Paterson, D., Rumohr, H., Schiedek, D., Sokolowski, A., Somerfield, P., Sousa Pinto, I., Vincx, M., Węsławski, JM., Nash, R. (2009). Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Printbase, Dublin, Ireland ISSN 2009-2539
- ↑ Rony Huys, Wonchoel Lee, 2009, Proposal of Marbefia, gen. n. and Inermiphonte, gen. n., including updated keys to the species of Pseudonychocamptus Lang, 1944 and Paralaophonte Lang, 1948 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Laophontidae), ZooKeys 23
