Crustacea biodiversity in tubes of Ceriantharia (Cnidaria; Anthozoa), including the description of a novel species of Amphipoda from southeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

This study investigates ceriantharian tubes to better understand the biodiversity of marine benthic crustaceans. The inner and outer surfaces of eight tubes of Ceriantharia from the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, were analyzed. We observed 14 taxa of crustaceans, including one novel species, Podocerus carmelina sp. nov. We also report two new location records for previously known species and provide an identification key for Podocerus species with type localities in the Atlantic Ocean. The new species can be easily differentiated from its congeners by the following features: pereonite 3 with weak dorsal carina; gnathopod 2 carpus indistinct, almost entirely fused to propodus, propodus bearing several facial short plumose setae, palm defined by a proximal blunt projection, with a subtriangular tooth medially, a ‘u-shaped’ concavity and a crenulated lobe distally; pereonite 4 elongated, about 2.2 × deeper than wide; pereonites 5–6 anteroventral corner with a subacute projection; coxa 5 anteroventral corner with a notch, forming an acute spine; telson dorsal lobe with three stout setae, with naked lateral margins; uropod 2 outer ramus with one subapical long and stout plumose seta.

Publication LSID: lsid:zoobank.org:act:B733959C-C1E7-464B-88FB-AF5D2C6347F8

KEYWORDS:

• Benthic marine invertebrates
• Podocerus
• taxonomy
• tube-dwelling anemone

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Author Contribution Statement

The study and sampling were designed by HC and SNS. HC and SNS identified the ceriantharian specimens. ARS and LFA identified the crustacean specimens and created the taxonomic illustrations. HC wrote the first draft of the manuscript, to which ARS, LFA, and SNS added significant improvements. All authors read, commented on, and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) for supporting research activities at the Alcatrazes Wildlife Refuge, the Center for Marine Biology for infrastructure support, as well as the reviewers and subject editor for their comments helping us improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

HC was financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 88887.301759/2018-00, and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – Brasil (CNPq) – Finance Code 141329/2020-3. SNS was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), grant numbers 2015/24408-4, 2016/50389-0, 2019/03552-0, CNPq (PROTAX), grant number 440539/2015-3, and CNPq (Research Productivity Scholarship) grant number 301293/2019-8. LFA was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE), grant number BFP-0052-1.08/20. ARS was supported by the Programa de Incentivo à Produção Científica, Técnica e Artística (PROCIÊNCIA) and Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grant number E-26/202.768/2019.