A redescription of the post-larval physonect siphonophore stage known as Mica micula Margulis 1982, from Antarctica, with notes on its distribution and identity

• Published in: Marine Ecology
• Main Authors: Grossmann, Mary M., Lindsay, Dhugal, Fuentes, Veronica
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2013
• Subjects: Antarctic; Collaborative East-Antarctic MARine Census; Mica micula; Post-larval stage; Pyrostephidae; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/75376; https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12026

8 pages, 7 figures The samples obtained during the 2008 Collaborative East-Antarctic MARine Census (CEAMARC) campaign in the Southern Ocean on the TR/V Umitaka Maru contained many specimens of the physonect post-larval stage known as Mica micula, in varying stages of development, allowing us to complement the existing descriptions. M. micula appears to be endemic to the Southern Ocean, and its possible position in the family Pyrostephidae, in particular the species Pyrostephos vanhoeffeni, is discussed. For the first time, the definitive nectophores were observed, but they were still too underdeveloped to be assigned conclusively to any known physonect species This study is a contribution to the Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) and the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), ocean realm field projects of the Census of Marine Life (CoML). This work was partially funded by JSPS KAKENHI, grant number 24248032. The publication of this paper is supported by CONISMA, the Italian National Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences Peer reviewed