• Corpus ID: 54677619

Podocerus chelonophilus, a testudinous amphipod newly recorded from the western Atlantic Ocean.

@article{Thomas1992PodocerusCA,
  title={Podocerus chelonophilus, a testudinous amphipod newly recorded from the western Atlantic Ocean.},
  author={James Darwin. Thomas and J. Laurens Barnard},
  journal={Bulletin of Marine Science},
  year={1992},
  volume={50},
  pages={108-116}
}

• J. Thomas, J. Barnard
• Published 1992
• Biology
• Bulletin of Marine Science

Podocerus chelonophilus (=P. cheloniae), an amphipod inhabiting the carapace of the loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, is reported for the first time from the western Atlantic Ocean. Previously, this amphipod had been reported only from the eastern Atlantic Ocean in the Azores Islands and in the Mediterranean Sea along the shores of Algeria. The record by Stebbing (1888) stated simply "Atlantic" and may have been from the western Atlantic because the CHALLENGERExpedition traversed those waters. This species was described twice in 1888, with the name P. chelonophilus Chevreux and de Guerne, 1888 (February 1888) taking priority over the name P. cheloniae Stebbing, 1888 (December 1888) according to a footnote on page 115 in Chevreux (1900). Stebbing (1906) retained both species as distinct in his world monograph. In the opinion of the few subsequent students who have reported on the species, the specimen described as C. cheloniae by Stebbing (1888) is believed to exhibit juvenile features on article 2 of pereopods 3-4. It should be, therefore, a synonym of C. chelonophilus Chevreux and de Guerne (1888), the description of which was based on adult males and females. Article 2 of pereopods 3-4 in juveniles is relatively more swollen and has fewer and longer setae than do adults. This is quite typical of many species of amphipods and we agree with this conclusion. We present a review of Podocerus with a new diagnosis, list of species, principal references to those species, and a redescription of P. chelonophilus. Numbers in brackets are geographic codes to be found in Barnard and Barnard (1983). In our figures capital letters refer to parts; lower case letters to left of capital letters refer to specimens (if no letter present, then figure is unattributed) and to the right refer to adjectives as described below: A, antenna; B, body; D, dactyl; E, epimera; G, gnathopod; J, epistome marked by arrow; M, mandible; P, pereopod; R, uropod; S, maxilliped; T, telson; U, upper lip; V, palp; X, maxilla; r, right; t, left. Podoceridae Podocerinae