Parelasmopus, Stebbing, 1888

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 : 240

Parelasmopus , Quadrivisio and Victoriopisa

J.L. Barnard (1972a) redefined Parelasmopus and established Ifalukia for a species that did not quite fit the Parelasmopus mould. In the same paper he described two Australian species and synonymized P. suensis (Haswell, 1879b) with P. setiger Chevreux, 1901 . Strangely he continued to use the later name, P. setiger . J.L. Barnard (1974) reassessed his position and considered P. suensis and P. setiger to be separate species. Finally, Berents (1983) redescribed P. suensis from a lectotype male. In this paper we describe the fourth Australian species and the first species from the southeastern part of the country. This species, Parelasmopus sowpigensis , also does not quite fit the Parelasmopus or Ifalukia moulds, but it is placed in a slightly expanded concept of the genus Parelasmopus .

Quadrivisio currently contains five species: Q. aviceps K.H. Barnard, 1940 ; Q. bengalensis Stebbing, 1907 ; Q. bousfieldi Karaman & Barnard, 1979 ; Q. lobata Asari, 1983 ; and Q. lutzi (Shoemaker, 1933) none of which are known from Australian waters. We describe a new species, Q. sarina , from the Queensland coast.

Stock & Platvoet (1981) revised the genus Victoriopisa and described a new species from Mauritania in the eastern North Atlantic. Including the new species described here, Victoriopisa now contains seven species: V.atlantica Stock & Platvoet, 1981 V. australiensis (Chilton, 1923) ; V. chilkensis (Chilton, 1921a) ; V. epistomata (Griffiths, 1974a) ; V. marina n.sp.; V. papiae Asari, 1983 and V. ryukyuensis Morino, 1991 . In a phylogenetic analysis of the Eriopisa group van der Ham & Vonk (2003) affirmed the monophyly of Victoriopisa .

The original description and illustrations of Victoriopisa australiensis (Chilton, 1923) were inadequate and the type was thought to be lost (Springthorpe & Lowry, 1994). When Karaman & Barnard (1979) established the genus Victoriopisa they included V. australiensis , but did not redescribe it. This is a very distinctive species that lives in a restricted habitat. For these reasons we redescribe and illustrate this species, based on material from Boambee Creek, Sawtell, New South Wales, near the type locality, Trial Bay. After our illustration of the Boambee Creek specimens were completed the type was located, too late to be incorporated into this study. A second species ( Victoriopisa marina n.sp.) is described, from estuarine and marine habitats in New South Wales and Victoria.