A New Amphilochid Species (Crustacea : Amphipoda : Amphilochidae) from a Spiny Lobster

Abstract

A new species of amphilochid amphipod, Gitanopsis iseebi, is described, based on both female and male specimens which were collected from the branchial chamber of a spiny lobster, Panulirusjaponicus (von Siebold), at Shirahama, Wakayama, Japan. This new species is sexually dimorphic in the gnathopods l and 2; their palmar corners are distinctly produced in the male. This new species is similar to Afrogitanopsis pagwi (Myers, 1974), from a pagurid, Dardanus megistos (Herbst) in Kenya, but distingmshable by the antenna 1 and epimeral plates. Taxonomic problems of the family Amphilochidae and the genus Afrogitanopsis are briefly discussed.