Parelasmopus Stebbing, 1888

Lowry, J. K. & Hughes, L. E., 2009, Maeridae, the Elasmopus group *, Zootaxa 2260 (1), pp. 643-702 : 690-691

Parelasmopus Stebbing, 1888

Parelasmopus Stebbing, 1888: 1029 . — Stebbing, 1906: 417. —J.L. Barnard, 1972a: 253 — Barnard & Barnard, 1983: 629, fig. 10. — Lowry & Stoddart, 2003: 185 (catalogue).

Type species. Megamoera suensis Haswell, 1879b , here selected (replacing Gammarus suluensis Dana, 1852 ).

Included species. Parelasmopus includes 10 species: P. albidus ( Dana, 1852) ; P. echo J.L. Barnard, 1972a ; P. dancaui Ortiz & Lalana, 1997 ; P. mallacootaformis Ledoyer, 1984 ; P. setiger Chevreux, 1901 ; P. sowpigensis Lowry & Springthorpe, 2005 ; P. suensis ( Haswell, 1879b) ; P. suluensis ( Dana, 1852) ; P. ya J.L. Barnard, 1972a; P. zelei Ledoyer, 1983 .

Remarks. Stebbing (1888) based the genus Parelasmopus on Gammarus suluensis Dana, 1852 . According to J.L. Barnard (1972a), Stebbing (1888) misidentified his material. Stebbing based his concept of Parelasmopus on a species with a pair of dorsal spines on pereonite 7, but pereonite 7 is smooth in P. suluensis . At that time Barnard could not identify the species, but comparing Stebbing’s (1888) illustrations with Berents’ (1983) illustrations of the lectotype of P. suensis , it is clear that Stebbing had P. suensis . In reality Stebbing based his description of Parelasmopus on P. suensis , using material from Challenger station 186, near Thursday Island, Torres Strait ( 10º30’S 142º18’E). According to ICZN (4 th edition, 1999) Article 70.3.1, this species may be selected as the type species, replacing Parelasmopus suluensis ( Dana, 1852) , originally chosen by Stebbing (1888).