Metopa

• Main Authors: Tandberg, Anne Helene S., Vader, Wim
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Malacostraca; Amphipoda; Stenothoidae; Metopa; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Spence; Chevreux; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6216420; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6216420

Metopa - through time When Krøyer (1842) originally described Leucothoe clypeata and L. glacialis, he placed them in the genus Leucothoe, emending its genus diagnosis. Goës (1866) and Spence Bate (1862) moved both species to Montagua. But Boeck (1872) placed Montagua in synonymy with Stenothoe, both genera lacking a mandible palp, and erected the new genus Metopa, with M. clypeata as type species, for species with a short 3 -articulate mandible palp (3 rd article very short) and a 1 -articulate palp on Maxilla 1, in his words: "Mandibulae palpo brevi, 3 articulato; articulo 3 tio fere obsoleto. Maxillae 1mi paris palpo 1 articulato. Reliqva cum genere Stenothoe ferme conveniunt". In the following years, many further Metopa species were described, usually without further examination of the mouthparts (see e.g. Sars 1892). About 50 years after the erection of Metopa, Schellenberg created the monotypic genus Prometopa for the antarctic P. tuberculata (Schellenberg, 1926). This separation has been discussed (Just, 1980; Barnard & Karaman, 1991), but that is not the theme for this paper. The cutting from Metopa started already with Sars (1892), who erected Metopella, for which Gurjanova (1938) selected Metopa longimana Boeck, 1870 as type species. Gurjanova (1938) also erected the genus Mesometopa, for which she chose Metopa esmarki Boeck, 1870 as type-species; later Metopa neglecta was moved by Shoemaker (1955) to the same genus. Barnard & Karaman (1987) erected the genus Torometopa, with Metopa crenatipalmata as type, for a series of southern species, and in Barnard & Karaman (1991) they erected the genus Hardametopa, for which they chose Metopa nasuta Boeck, 1870 as type, and at the same time moved Metopa carinata to the same genus. An example of the problems that arise from new species being described without descriptions of mouthparts can be found in the fate of Sars’ species Metopa rubrovittata Sars, 1883. When Barnard (1962) erected the new genus Stenula, he chose Stenothoides latipes Chevreux ...