WITTMANN, K.J. & C.L. GRIFFITHS, 2018. A new species of Mysidopsis G. O. Sars, 1864 from the Atlantic coast of South Africa, with supplementary descriptions of two other species and notes on colour and feeding apparatus (Mysida: Mysidae: Leptomysinae: Mysidopsini). Journal of Crustacean Biology, 38 (2): 215–234.
https://doi.org/10.1093/jcbiol/rux118 open access
Surveys of species diversity in sublittoral waters along the coasts of the Cape Peninsula (South Africa) yielded three species of the genus Mysidopsis G. O. Sars, 1864. A supplementary description is given for M. similis (Zimmer, 1912); a first description of the female of M. zsilaveczi Wittmann & Griffiths, 2014 is provided and M. abbreviata sp. nov. is described. The new species is characterized, among other features, by a transversely shortened rostrum. Field observations of M. zsilaveczi and M. abbreviata sp. nov. showed the greatest intraspecific diversity of colour patterns ever documented for mysids. Stomach contents, together with differences in the armature of perioral mouthparts and in the foregut suggest that all three species are specialized predators, mainly of crustaceans. An updated key to the species of Mysidopsis in southern Africa is given.
mysids; taxonomy; new species; key to species; colour adaptation; perioral structures; foregut structure; food; carnivores; South East Atlantic
Mysidopsis abbreviata nov. spec.; Mysidopsis similis; Mysidopsis zsilaveczi; Mysidopsini; Mysidae; Mysida