Nicippe isaki, a new species of Pardaliscidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from Svalbard

ABSTRACT

Species of Nicippe are recorded almost worldwide and four species have been previously recorded. Descriptions of taxonomic characters of Nicippe isaki sp. nov. from Svalbard are given and compared with morphologically similar species. Nicippe isaki has previously been considered as Nicippe tumida, which actually may be a complex of several local species. Nicippe isaki is characterized by a strong, pointed dorsal tooth on urosomite 1, extending beyond the next segment. Peduncle article 1 on antenna 1 is broad. Dactyl on pereopods 3 and 4 is 2/3 of propodus. Coxa 7 is small and posteriorly tapering. The peduncle on uropod 1 is longer than the rami. The distolateral tooth on uropod 2 peduncle is short and straight. The male and female antennae 1 and 2 show morphological differences. The male antenna 1 has a well-developed callynophore on article 1 of the flagellum, and an inflated article 1 on the accessory flagellum. Peduncle article 5 on male antenna 2 is longer than article 4, while they are subequal in females. The dorsoapical tooth on urosomite 1 is pointing straight backwards in females, while it is bent in males. A key to the species of Nicippe is provided.

Publication LSID: lsid:http://zoobank.org/pub:E9C0AF29-6E49-46A6-810D-442A3E2BFE58

KEYWORDS:

• Taxonomy
• Arctic
• marine amphipod
• Nicippe

Acknowledgements

We thank Børge Holte at the Institute of Marine Research/Mareano-project and Jon Kongsrud at the University Museum in Bergen for the loan of the material used for the descriptions in this publication. We also thank the reviewers, Dr Ed Hendrycks (Ottawa, Canada) and Dr Anna Jażdżewska (Lodz, Poland) for good suggestions that have improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.