Talpacoxa brandini gen. et sp. nov. a new Nannopodidae Brady, 1880 (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) from submersed sands of Pontal do Sul (Paraná, Brazil)

Abstract

A new genus of Nannopodidae is described. Talpacoxa brandini gen. et sp. nov. is a typical sand-dwelling species with modified burrowing first legs. The new genus can be diagnosed by leg 1 transformed into a burrowing structure; coxa hypertrophied, longer than the exopod and the endopod, with a well-developed crista, downwardly extended, with a bifid tip; exopod one-segmented, strong, rectangular, ornamented with various cuneiform spinules; endopod two-segmented, second endopodal segment with two distal elements; intercoxal plate well developed, longer than the exopod and the endopod. Leg two to leg four reduced, with two-segmented exopod and one-segmented endopod; limbs laterally displaced with no trace of intercoxal plate. Leg five exopod one-segmented; intercoxal plate reduced. The new genus is tentatively included within Nannopodidae because of some putative synapomorphies shared with the genera Rosacletodes, Huntemannia, Laophontisochra and Acuticoxa.

Keywords:

• estuarine
• interstitial
• meiofauna
• new taxon
• Paranaguá Bay
• South America

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq) for their financial support of this work. This work would not have been possible without the logistical support offered by the Centro de Estudos do Mar (CEM-UFPR), Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg and the Department of Zoology of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). I am especially indebted to Dr Frederico Brandini for his support in field logistics and to Dr Pedro Martínez Arbizu who first found this species and made it available to this study.