DEEP-SEA TANAIDACEA FROM THE BOUGAINVILLE TRENCH

OF THE PACIFIC

BY

R. K. KUDINOVA-PASTERNAK
BiologicalFaculty of the Moscow State University, U.S.S.R.

In 1957, during investigations of the Pacific, the soviet research vessel "Vitjaz"
carried out several successful trawlings in the Bougainville Trench at depths ex-
ceeding 6000 meters. As a result some species of deep-sea Tanaidacea belonging to
the two genera Leptognathia Sars, 1882, and Neotanals Beddard, 1886, were
collected.
The genus Le ptognathia has been found at the ultra-abyssal (hadal ) depths for
the first time. The description of four species belonging to the genus is given in
this paper. Three of them - L. elegayz.r n. sp., L. birsteini n. sp., L. caudata n. sp.
- - L. armata Hansen, 1913 - was described
proved to be new, while the fourth
before. The single specimen of the tanaid belonging to the genus Neotanais was
determined as N. serratiJpinoJus (Norman & Stebbing, 1886). A small fragment
of another tanaid was also found. It must be assigned to the family Apseudidae.

NEOTANAIDAE

Neotanais serratispinosus (Norman & Stebbing) (figs. 1-3)

Alaotanais serratispinosus Norman & Stebbing, 1886: 111, pl. 23 fig. 1, pl. 24 fig. 1.
Neotanais serralispinosus Hansen, 1913: 18-19, pl. 1 figs. 6a, 6b, pl. 2 fig. la-c.
Neotanais serratispinosus hadalis Wolff, 1956a: 210-218, figs. 21-34.
Material. - One female with oostegites, "Vitjaz" St. No. 3655, 5° 49.4' S 152° 53.4' E, depth
6920-7657 m, calcareousmud.

- In 1956 Wolff described a new

Systematic position. subspecies of N. ser-
ratispinosu.r, N. f. hadalis, found at a depth of 7150 m and 8210 m in the Ker-
madec trench.
A careful examination brought us to the conclusion that our specimen possesses
the characters both of N. s. serratispinosus and of N. s. hadalis. The difficulty
to attribute our specimen to either subspecies described by Wolff becomes clear
from table I, showing the differences between these subspecies and our specimen.
76

Fig. 1. Neotanais seri-alispinosus (Norman & Stebbing), female from Bougainville Trench. The
scale represents 1 mm.

TABLE I .
Differences between the N..r. hadali.r (after Wolff,
1956a: 217-218) and our specimen of

N. s. N. s. N. ,reYratt.fpTYlO,ftlS
Characters
serratispinosus ,hadalis
,,. "Vitjaz" specimen
Ratio of the width to
the length of peraeo- 3 2 2.5
nite II
Number of the inner 1 2 1 (the form of the
convexities of the (fig. 2 a) (fig. 2 b) labium differs from
labium those of N. s. serra-
tisPinosus and N. s.
hadalis both; fig. 2 c)
Number of serrated considerably smaller larger than in N. s. a little smaller than
spines on all peraeo- than in N. s. hada!i.r serratispinosus in N. s. hadalis
pods
Spines of less strongly serrated much more strongly as in N. s. hadalis,
peraeopods V-VII serrated
Number of short
spines in the row on 9 13 14
propodus of peraeo-
pod VII
Uropods very slender and as twice as stout and at as in N. s. hadalis, a
long as pleon most 2/3 of pleon little larger than 2/3of
length of pleon
Total length of fully 6.7-8.5 mm 15-15.1 mm 14 mm
developed female