Four new species of Desmosomatidae Sars, 1897 (Crustacea: Isopoda) from the deep sea of the Angola Basin

Abstract

From a total of 104 species and 1741 individuals of Isopoda, the material from DIVA-1 (DIVersity of the Atlantic benthos) contained 364 specimens belonging to Desmosomatidae Sars, 1897. They are represented by 10 genera and 27 species. Most species (93%) are new to science. Four species are described in this study (Eugerdella theodori sp. nov., Desmosoma renatae sp. nov., Torwolia tinbiene sp. nov. and Momedossa longipedis sp. nov.). A discussion of the genera Desmosoma Sars, 1864, Momedossa Hessler, 1970 and Torwolia Hessler, 1970 is presented.

Keywords:

• Deep sea
• Desmosomatidae
• DIVA
• Isopoda
• new species
• South Atlantic Ocean

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dr Angelika Brandt for introducing me to deep-sea Isopoda and for making this work possible; and to Dr Nils Brenke, Dr Wiebke Brökeland, Bente Stransky and Stefanie Kaiser for helpful comments and discussions. Tara Connelli and Dr Brigitte Ebbe are thanked for final corrections of the English. Aidan Vey kindly read through the final version of the reviewed manuscript. I appreciate the motivating support of my working group. I would like to thank the reviewers for their quality-improving comments. The financial support was provided by a grant of the German Science foundation (DFG) under contract no. Br 1121/ 22-1,2,3.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark