New and Little-known Melitid Amphipods from Australian Waters (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae)

In the Ceradocus group Austromaera n.gen. is established for Maera mastersii Haswell, 1879a, that is redescribed based on syntype material and new collections from Port Jackson. Ceradocus circe n.sp. is described based on specimens from Tasmania, originally reported by Chilton (1921b) as C. rubromaculatus (Stimpson, 1856). Maera boecki Haswell, 1879 and Maera hamigera Haswell, 1879 (sensu stricto), both originally described from Port Jackson, are redescribed and these species as well as Maera octodens Sivaprakasam, 1968 are transferred to the genus Linguimaera Pirlot, 1934, recently re-established by Krapp-Schickel (2003).

Linguimaera schickelae n.sp. is described from the Sydney area. Maera griffini Berents, 1983, is tentatively placed in the genus Maeropsis Chevreux, 1919. Mallacoota subcarinata is redescribed based on syntypes and new collections and four new Australian species (M. chandaniae n.sp., M. euroka n.sp., M. kameruka n.sp. and M. malua n.sp.) are described, two of which have previously been mis-identified as M. subcarinata.

Mallacoota nananui Myers, 1985, is reported from Australia for the first time. Miramaera thetis n.gen., n.sp. is established for the specimens mis-identified by Stebbing, 1910a as Maera inaequipes. We describe a new species of Parelasmopus, P. sowpigensis n.sp., from Port Jackson, New South Wales.

Quadrivisio sarina n.sp. is described from near McKay, Queensland, the first record of Quadrivisio Stebbing, 1907 in Australian waters. In the Eriopisa group Victoriopisa australiensis (Chilton, 1923) is redescribed and illustrated. A second species, Victoriopisa marina n.sp., is described from estuarine and marine habitats in New South Wales and Victoria.

In the Melita group Dulichiella australis (Haswell, 1879a) is redescribed based on syntype material and D. pacifica n.sp. is described based on collections from the Great Barrier Reef, the southwestern Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. Melita ophiocola n.sp. is described from Port Jackson, living in association with the brittlestar Ophionereis schayeri. LOWRY, J.K., & R.T. SPRINGTHORPE, 2005.

New and little-known melitid amphipods from Australian waters (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae). Records of the Australian Museum 57(2): 237–302. Melitid amphipods are a diverse and abundant part of the Australian amphipod fauna.

Including this work and the recent work of Krapp-Schickel (2003), there are 86 known Australian marine and freshwater species (Table 1). The majority of the marine component comes from the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country. Many species are yet to be discovered from tropical areas.

Nearly 75% of the Australian melitid fauna has been described since the early 1970s and many of the earlier species were redescribed during this time. Lowry et al. (2001) reviewed the marine component of this fauna and provided redescriptions, pictures and an interactive key to all marine species at crutacea.net. The new species from that review are described here and some of the more problematical species are redescribed.

The Haswell species The first descriptor of the Australian amphipod fauna, W.A. Haswell, described 10 species of melitids (Table 1), mainly from Port Jackson (Haswell, 1879a,b). Based on the original descriptions, these amphipods have never been easy to identify, and the status of his types, which could be used for redescriptions, has always been a problem (Springthorpe & Lowry, 1994). Sheard (1936) and J.L. Barnard (1972a) redescribed Ceradocus ramsayi (Haswell, 1879a) and Maera mastersii (Haswell, 1879a), but the material Sheard (1936) considered to be M. mastersii has recently been described as Linguimaera tias Krapp-Schickel, 2003 and the material of J.L. Barnard (1972a) has been described as Linguimaera leo Krapp-Schickel, 2003.

J.L. Barnard (1972a) redescribed Mallacoota diemenensis (Haswell, 1879a) and Quadrimaera viridis (Haswell, 1879b) and Berents (1983) redescribed Parelasmopus suensis (Haswell, 1879b). Parapherusa crassipes (Haswell, 1879b) is considered to be a well known, distinctive species. In this paper we redescribe Austromaera mastersii (Haswell, 1879a), Dulichiella australis (Haswell, 1879a), Linguimaera boecki (Haswell, 1879b), Linguimaera hamigera (Haswell, 1879b) and Mallacoota subcarinata (Haswell, 1879b).