Mallacoota, J. L. Barnard, 1972

Lowry, JK & Springthorpe, RT, 2005, New and Little-known Melitid Amphipods from Australian Waters (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae), Records of the Australian Museum 57, pp. 237-302 : 239-240

The Mallacoota Complex

Mallacoota J.L. Barnard, 1972 , was established for six species: M. carteta J.L. Barnard, 1972 , M. diemenensis (Haswell, 1879) , M. insignis (Chevreux, 1901) , M. marilla J.L. Barnard, 1972 , M. odontoplax (Pirlot, 1936) and M. subcarinata (Haswell, 1879) . At the same time Barnard demonstrated several “phenotypes” for M. subcarinata and M. carteta . Lowry & Fenwick (1983) subsequently removed M. marilla and M. carteta to a new genus, Hoho , and described a third species, H. hirtipalma .

Since then Ortiz has described M. carausui Ortiz, 1976 , Ledoyer has described M. subinsignis Ledoyer, 1979 , M. latidactylus Ledoyer, 1982 and M. schellenbergi Ledoyer, 1984 and transferred (Ledoyer, 1982) Elasmopus latibrachium Walker, 1905 to Mallacoota . Berents (1983) has described M. balara and Myers (1985) has described M. nananui . Myers (1985) summarized the status of Mallacoota and concluded that an in-depth study using a wide range of material was needed. Appadoo et al. (2002) began this process by redescribing M. insignis , M. latibrachium and M. schellenbergi and describing the new species M. caerulea from Mauritius. They also excluded M. subcarinata of Ledoyer (1978) from that area.

M. balara Berents, 1983

M. caerulea Appadoo, Myers & Fagoonee, 2002 M. carausui Ortiz, 1976

M. chandaniae n.sp.

M. diemenensis (Haswell, 1879)

M. euroka n.sp.

M. insignis (Chevreux, 1901)

M. kameruka n.sp.

M. latibrachium (Walker, 1905)

M. latidactylus Ledoyer, 1982

M. malua n.sp.

M. nananui Myers, 1985

M. odontoplax (Pirlot, 1936)

M. schellenbergi Ledoyer, 1984

The original description of Mallacoota subcarinata (Haswell, 1879b) was apparently based on a series of small adult specimens from Port Jackson. These syntypes are lodged in the Australian Museum, but are in poor condition. All have the unusual gnathopod 2 palmar shape indicated by Haswell’s (1879b) illustrations. Unfortunately this is not one of the species with which the name has been subsequently associated. To add to this confusion J.L. Barnard (1972) described three “phenotypes” in his redescription of M. subcarinata . In this paper we re-establish the original species concept of M. subcarinata by redescribing and illustrating the types and new material from near the type locality. We describe new Australian species ( M. chandaniae n.sp., M. euroka n.sp., M. kameruka n.sp. and M. malua n.sp.) some of which have in the past been mis-identified as M. subcarinata and comment on records of M. subcarinata from geographic areas outside of Australia. We also report M. nananui Myers, 1985 from Australian waters for the first time.

M. subcarinata (Haswell, 1879b)

M. subinsignis Ledoyer, 1979

Currently Mallacoota contains 16 species (Table 2) half of which occur in Australia. The genus is essentially Indo Pacific with one species, M. carausui , in the tropical western Atlantic.