Abstract
In the Tropical Eastern Pacific region, the gammaridean amphipods of the families Maeridae and Melitidae are represented by 28 species and 11 genera; the genus Elasmopus is the richest, with 13 species. The examination of approximately 3,250 specimens resulted in 12 new records from the Gulf of Tehuantepec, belonging to four genera, Elasmopus, Maera, Quadrimaera and Melita. All species are illustrated and described. Seven new species are described as: Elasmopus bastidai n. sp., Elasmopus karlae n. sp., Elasmopus lecroyae n. sp., Elasmopus marcelae n. sp., Elasmopus oaxaquensis n. sp., Maera umarae n. sp., and Melita bousfieldi n. sp. With these new species the genus Elasmopus from the Tropical Eastern Pacific is increased to 18 species that corroborates the hypothesis of Barnard (1979) “on the Pacific there are (sic) a mark of speciation of genus Elasmopus”. In addition, there are five new records from the Gulf of Tehuantepec: three species of Elasmopus and two of Quadrimaera. Also, the range distribution of Elasmopus temori Barnard and E. zoanthidea Barnard, is increased to the north from the Galapagos Islands to the Gulf of Tehuantepec; for E. tubar Barnard, Quadrimaera chinarra Barnard, and Q. reishi Barnard, there are new intermediate records between the Gulf of California and the Galapagos Islands. With the exception of the species of Quadrimaera, all known species represent the second record in the region after their first descriptions.References
Alderman, A.L. (1936) Some new or little known amphipods of California. University of California, Publications in Zoology, 41, 53–74.
Barnard, J.L. (1952a) A new species of amphipod from Baja California (genus Eriopisa). Pacific Science, 6, 295–299.
Barnard, J.L. (1952b) A new amphipod of the genus Ceradocus (Denticeradocus) from Baja California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Science, 51, 55–59.
Barnard, J.L. (1954) Marine amphipoda of Oregon. Oregon State Monographs, Studies in Zoology, 8, 1–103.
Barnard, J.L. (1955) Gammaridean Amphipoda (Crustacea) in the collections of Bishop Museum. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, 215, 1–46.
Barnard, J.L. (1959) Estuarine Amphipoda In: Ecology of Amphipoda and Polychaeta of Newport Bay, California. Occasional Paper of the Allan Hancock Foundation Publications, 21, 13–69.
Barnard, J.L. (1961) Gammaridean Amphipoda from depths of 400 to 6000 meters. Galathea Report, 5, 23–128.
Barnard, J.L. (1962) Benthic marine Amphipoda of southern California: Families Tironidae to Gammaridae. Pacific Naturalist, 3, 73–115.
Barnard, J.L. (1964a) Los anfípodos bentonicos marinos de la costa occidental de Baja California. Revista de la Sociedad Mexicana de Historia Natural, 24, 205–273.
Barnard, J.L. (1964b) Marine Amphipoda of San Quintin Bay, Baja California. Pacific Naturalist, 4, 55–139.
Barnard, J.L. (1964c) Some Bathyal Pacific Amphipoda Collected by the U.S.S. Albatross. Pacific Science, 18, 315–355.
Barnard, J.L. (1969a) A biological survey of Bahia de Los Angeles Gulf of California, Mexico. IV. Benthic Amphipoda. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History, 15, 175–228.
Barnard, J.L. (1969b) Gammaridean Amphipoda of the rocky intertidal of California: Monterey Bay to La Jolla. United States National Museum Bulletin, 258, 1–230.
Barnard, J.L. (1971) Gammaridean amphipoda from a deep-sea transect off Oregon. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 61, 1–86.
Barnard, J.L. (1976) Affinities of Paraniphargus leleuparum Monod, a blind anchialine amphipod (Crustacea) from the Galapagos lslands. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 89, 421–431.
Barnard, J.L. (1979) Littoral Gammaridean Amphipoda from the Gulf of California and the Galapagos Islands. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 271, 1–149.
Barnard, J.L. & Barnard, C.M. (1983) Freshwater Amphipoda of the world. I. Evolutionary patterns and, II. Handbook and bibliography. Hayfield Associates, Vernon, Virginia, 830 pp.
Bousfield, E.L. (1973) Shallow-water gammaridean Amphipoda of New England. Comell University Press, Ithaca & London. 312 pp.
Chapman, J.W. (1988) Invasions of the Northeast Pacific by Asian and Atlantic Gammaridean amphipod crustaceans, including a new species of Corophium. Journal Crustacean Biology, 8, 364–382.
Corona, A. & Raz-Guzmán, A. (2003) Distribución geográfica de los anfípodos e isópodos (Crustacea: Peracarida: Amphipoda e Isopoda) de los sistemas estuarinos de Michoacán, México. In: Hendrickx, M.E. (ed.). Contributions to the Study of East Pacific Crustaceans 2. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM, Mexico, pp. 219–225.
Costa, A. (1853) Relazione sulla memoria del Dottor Achille Costa, di ricerche su' crostacei arnfipodi del regno di Napoli. Rendiconto della Societa Reale Borbonica, Accademia delle Scienze, new series, 2, 167–178.
García-Madrigal, M.S. (2008 {2007}) Annotated checklist of the amphipods (Peracarida: Amphipoda) from the tropical eastern Pacific. In: Hendrickx, M.E. (ed.). Contributions to the Study of East Pacific Crustaceans 4, 2. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM, Mexico, pp: 63–195.
Jarrett, N.E. & Bousfield, E.L. (1996) The amphipod superfamily Hadzioidea on the Pacific coast of north America: family Melitidae. Part 1. The Melita group: systematics and distributional ecology. Amphipacifica, 2, 3–74.
Karaman, S. (1955) Uber einige Amphipoden des Grundwassers der Jugoslavischen Meereskuste. Acta Musei Macedonici Scientiarum Naturalium, Skopje, 2, 223–242.
Krapp-Schickel, T. (2008) What has happened with the Maera-clade (Crustacea, Amphipoda) during the last decade? Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona, 32, 3–32.
Krapp-Schickel, T. & Jarrett, N.E. (2000) The amphipod Melitidae on the Pacific coast of North America. II The Maera-Ceradocus complex. Amphipacifica, 2, 23–62.
Krapp-Schickel, T. & Ruffo, S. (2000) The Maera quadrimana complex (Crustacea, Amphipoda Melitidae) demands a new concept: Quadrimaera n. gen. (with description of three new species from Western Atlantic). Bollettino del Museo civico di Storia Naturale di Verona, 24, 193–214.
Leach, W.F. (1814) Crustaceology. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 7, 402–403.
Leach, W.F. (1814) Crustaceology. Appendix. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 7, 429–434.
Monod, T. (1970) Sur quelques crustaces malacostraces des lIes Galapagos recoltes par N. et J. Leleup (1964–1965). Mission Zoologique BeIge aux iles Galapagos et en Ecuador (N. et J. Leleup, 1964–1965), 2, 11–53.
Obenat, S., Spivak, E. & Garrido, L. (2006) Life history and reproductive biology of the invasive amphipod Melita palmata (Amphipoda: Melitidae) in the Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon, Argentina. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 86, 1381–1387.
Pirlot, J.M. (1934) Les amphipodes de l’expedition du Siboga. Deuxieme partie, II. Les amphipodes de la mer profonde. 2. Hyperiopsidae, Jassidae. Siboga Expeditie, 33d, 167–235.
Schellenberg, A. (1936) Zwei neu Amphipoden des Stillen Ozeans und zwei Beriehtigungen. Zoologiseher Anzeiger, 116, 153–156.
Schellenberg, A. (1938) Littorale amphipoden des tropischen Pazifiks. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, ser. 3, 16, 1–105.
Smith, S.I. (1873) Crustacea, ex. Isopoda. In: Verrill's A.E. Report upon the invertebrate animals of Vineyard Sound. U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Pt. 1. Report on the Condition of the Sea Fisheries of the South Coast of New England in 1871 and 1872. pp. 295–778.
Shoemaker, C.R. (1935) A new species of amphipod of genus Grandidierella and a new record for Melita nitida from Sinaloa, Mexico. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 25, 65–71.
Shoemaker, C.R. (1941) On the names of certain California amphipods. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 54, 187–188.
Shoemaker, C.R. (1942) Amphipod crustaceans collected on the Presidential Cruise of 1938. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 101, 1–52.
Stimpson, W. (1856) On some Californian Crustacea. Proceedings of the California Academy of Science, 1, 87–90.
Stimpson, W. (1864) Descriptions of new species of marine Invertebrata from Puget Sound, collected by the naturalists of the North-West Boundary Commission, A.H., Campbell, esq., commissioner. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 16, 153–165.
Stock, J.H. & Iliffe, T.M. (1990) Amphipod crustaceans from anchihaline cave waters of the Galapagos Islands. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 98, 141–160.
Stout, V.R. (1912) Studies in Laguna Amphipoda. First Annual Report of the Laguna Marine Laboratory, pp. 134–149.
Stout, V.R. (1913) Studies in Laguna Amphipoda. Zoologische Jahrbucher, Systematik, 34, 633–659.
Walker, A.O. (1898) Crustacea collected by W.A. Herdman, F.R.S., in Puget Sound, Pacific Coast of North America, September, 1897. Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society, 12, 268–287.
Watling, L. (1989) A classification system for crustacean setae based on the homology concept. In: Felgenhauer, B., L. Watling, A.B. Thistle. (Eds). Functional morphology of feeding and grooming in Crustacea. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 15–26.