The Marine Fauna of New Zealand: Isopoda, Aegidae (Crustacea)

end on preservation, rendering apparently precise
measurements meaningless. Therefore, lengths for
specimens of 20 mm or more are given to the nearest
millimetre. Pereopod measurements were made along
the axis of the articles for the basis of pereopods –3
and all articles for pereopod 7; for pereopods –3 the
ischium, merus and carpus were measured along the
inferior margin.
tErmINOlOgy
Words used in descriptions are shown in Figs 2 and 3.
Setae, unless stated otherwise, are simple (following
Watling 989).
AbbrEvIAtIONs
Institutional
AK — Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland
AM —Australian Museum, Sydney
BMNH — The Natural History Museum, London
LACM — Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County, Los Angeles
MNHN — Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle,
Paris
MTQ — Queensland Museum, Museum of Tropical
Queensland, Townsville
NMV — Museum Victoria, Melbourne
NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research Ltd, Wellington
body
Body lacking processes with rare exception, such as the
males of Aegiochus vigilans (Haswell, 88 ) (see Bruce
983) and Aegiochus webberi (Nierstrasz, 93 ).
rostral point
Present in all genera. In Aega this is usually a distinct,
acute anteriorly directed process, in Aegiochus it is
ventrally and posteriorly bent and in Epulaega gen. nov.
it is minute and in dorsal view the head may appear
to lack a rostral point. In Rocinela it is a large flat and
anteriorly rounded process. In Syscenus and Xenuraega
ranges from moderate to small in size.
Eyes
Range in size from small (infrequent), cirolanid-like
proportions as in Aegiochus laevis (Studer, 884) to
huge, filling the entire head as in many species illustrated
here. It is notable that in many species the eyes
are distinctly dorsal, with ommatidia not extending
to the ventral surface, and not lateral as in cirolanids
and many other Cymothoida. In Aega the surface of
the eye is smooth, while in Rocinela the surface of each
NMNZ – National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa
Tongarewa, Wellington
NTM — Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern
Territory, Darwin
QFS — Queensland Fisheries Service (now part of DPI,
Brisbane)
QM — Queensland Museum, Brisbane
SAM — South Australian Museum, Adelaide
SafM — South African Museum, Cape Town
USNM — National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington DC
ZIAS — Zoological Institute, Academy Sciences, Leningrad
ZMA — Zoological Museum, Amsterdam
ZMHA — Zoological Museum, Hamburg
ZMUC — Zoologisk Museum, University of Copenhagen
morphological
BL— body length
RS—robust seta/setae
PMS—plumose marginal setae
NAmEs
mOrphOlOgy
Names for new taxa other than place names and honorifics
are derived from Biggs (1990) for Mäori names
and Brown ( 956) for traditional classical names.
Nomenclature for fishes has been sourced entirely
from FishBase (Froese & Pauly 2002–07).
ommatidium is distinctly rounded giving a nodular
appearance to the eyes.
pleon
Relatively uniform throughout the family, all genera
with five free (not fused) segments. Differences can
be observed in the degree of prolongation of pleonite
4 in Aega and the extent to which the posterolateral
margins are acute.
pleotelson
Varies with regard to shape of the margins, setation
and ornamentation.
Antennule and antenna
The antennule differs between genera in the degree of
flattening of peduncular articles 1 and 2, the relative
extension of the distolateral angle of peduncular article
2, and the relative proportions of peduncular article 3;
the length of the flagellum may separate species. The
antennal peduncle is relatively uniform, with the first
two articles always short; in Aega and related genera,
peduncular article 3 is also relatively short; in Rocinela