Amaryllis macrophthalma Haswell 1879

Amaryllis macrophthalma Haswell

Amaryllis macrophthalmus Haswell, 1880b: 253–254, pl. 8: fig. 3.—?Stebbing 1888:706–709, pl. 29.—Thomson 1902: 463.—Chilton 1906:267.

Amaryllis macrophthalma.—Stebbing 1906:24; 1908:67–69. —?Walker 1909:327 [questioned by K. H. Barnard, 1932]. —Stebbing 1910a: 569–570; 1910b: 448.—Chilton 1912: 463–464.—K. H. Barnard 1916:114–116.—Chilton 1921a: 55.—Schellenberg 1926:243; 1931:10–11.—K. H. Barnard 1932:34.

Amaryllis brevieornis Haswell, 1880b:254.

Glycerina affinis Chilton, 1885:1036–1037, pl. 47: figs, 1a, b.

Heretofore, Australian specimens of this species have not been figured minutely. Presumably the identification of this species from South Africa, to which most references in the 1900s refer, has been made on the basis of Stebbing’s (1888) excellent drawings of a juvenile from Patagonia.



The smallest Australian juveniles at hand are about 2.0 mm long and compare with the Patagonian specimen (approximately 5.0 mm) in several characters that are not typical of adults. Juveniles differ from adults in the narrower coxa 4, which, in juveniles, has a height-width ratio of 171:140 and, in adults, 150:140. Article 4 of pereopod 3 is broad in juveniles, with a ratio of 20:34 on article 2; in adults, 9:34. Article 4 of pereopod 3 nearly covers the posterior margin of article 5 in juveniles, but it is much shorter in adults. Mandibular palp article 3 of juveniles is short and slightly falcate in contrast to adults.

The Patagonian juvenile differs from any stage of the Australian specimens (2—21 mm) in the apical notches on the telsonic lobes, the presence of an apical spine on the outer ramus of uropod 3, and the placement of the posteroventral notch on pleonal epimeron 3 directly at the lower corner, not well above it. The latter character seems to be a significant indication that Patagonian and South African specimens represent a distinct species or subspecies.

Adults have article 2 of pereopods 3–5 becoming progressively more truncate ventrally with increase in body size.

An aberrant group of specimens from Port Phillip 25 is characterized by a series of deep posterior serrations on pleonal epimeron 3, serrations that replicate the single serration typical of other specimens. In view of the congruence of other characters of the specimens in Port Phillip 25 and in view of coxal and pereopodal differences that characterize the only other known species of Amaryllis, I am not attributing any nomenclatural distinction to the variation in the specimens in hand. This variation reduces the significance of the epimeral difference in the Patagonian juvenile.

K. H. Barnard (1916) appears to have confused the meaning of Stebbing (1908), who described long setae on articles 4 and 5 of pereopods 1–2 in males. Barnard changed this meaning to apply to articles 5 and 6 of gnathopods 1 and 2. No well-developed male is present in the many specimens at hand. Two males with a few calceoli on antennae 1–2 are present, but they lack setae on uropod 3 and pereopods 1–2.

Though the mouthparts of Amaryllis are not strongly styliform, the mouthpart group does present a subconical appearance from lateral view. When flattened, maxilla 1 consistently breaks on the outer lobe about halfway down the outer margin to form an artifact that appears as a rudimentary palp.

The cuticle bears irregular and weak lines, which form a mosaic with scattered spinules, that are almost completely immersed in the skin.

MATERIAL.—Port Phillip, 24 stations (100); Shepherd 22 (3), 23 (2), 33 (2), 37 (1), 47 (2); JLB Australia 4(1); Slack-Smith 2(2); WAM, jetty piles, Fremantle (2), October 1912; WAM, Lancelin Island, on deck from craypots and sponges, collected by J. Shea (1), February 1956; northeast of Garden Island, on old boom piles, collected by P.B. Lenhard (2), 14 March 1959.

DISTRIBUTION.—Warm-temperate Australia, littoral and sublittoral; Tasmania; New Zealand; cold-temperate South America and Falkland Islands; South Africa; sublittoral upward to 100 fms.

Parawaldeckia Stebbing

Littoral to continental shelf (0 to 200 m), 6-82 m, rarely 146-219 m depth

Cosmopolitan in southern hemisphere (Griffiths, 1974).

Australia: Port Jackson, New South Wales south to Spencer Gulf, South Australia

fine and coarse sediment (mud, muddy sand, muddy fine shell, sandy mud, fine sand, fine shelly sand, medium sand, very coarse sand, medium shell, coarse shell); bryozoans; algal holdfasts