Nebalia herbstii Leach, 1814

Nebalia herbstii Leach, 1814 View in CoL

Material examined. Scotland. 16 specimens, Rubha Stillaig, Loch Fyne, Stn 17:2, 55°51.860’N 005°18.900’W, 08.vi.1999 GoogleMaps . England. 1 specimen, Falmouth , Cornwall, 50°54.740’N 005°54.910’W, 6.8 m, clean shells/maërl, 2.v.2013 GoogleMaps . 9 specimens, north-east Isles of Scilly, 49°55.289’N 006°19.926’W, 15.9 m, sand, 26.v.2013 GoogleMaps . 110 specimens, north-east Isles of Scilly, 49°58.125’N 006°19.257’W, 6.1 m, coarse (3–4 cm) gravel with mud and abundant macroalgae, 27.v.2013 GoogleMaps .

British and Irish Distribution. Shetland, western British Isles ( Dahl, 1985), south-west and western coasts of England ( Leach, 1814), Loch Fyne, Isles of Scilly, Falmouth (present study) ( Fig. 1D View Figure 1 ).

Distribution beyond the study area. Western France to Spanish border (Walker-Smith and Poore, 2001); northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula ( Martínez et al., 2007).

Ecology. Shallow (6.1–15.9 m), near-shore waters over sands, muds, gravels and maërl (present study). Occurring under stones that lay on mud amongst the hollows of the rocks ( Leach, 1814).

Remarks. Dahl (1985) believed N. herbstii to be the dominant species of the genus in the British Isles. For this reason, many subsequent records of Nebalia from the British Isles have been attributed to N. herbstii . The material examined in the present study demonstrates that far from being the most common species of the genus it is relatively uncommon, in routine samples at least. Dahl (1985) also believed that the species may well occur around the Iberian Peninsula; however, Moreira et al. (2009a) could not confirm the occurrence of N. herbstii there. Ledoyer (1997) recorded its presence in the Mediterranean ( Corsica and Bonnieu, France). However, Koçak et al. (2011) suspect that these specimens may refer to a different species as the dimensions of the maxilla 2 in Ledoyer’s specimens differ from that typical of the species [in Dahl’s (1985) description the proximal article of the endopod is longer than the distal article, whereas in Ledoyer’s specimen they are subequal in length]. Subsequent to Dahl’s (1985) revision many of the records that were originally ascribed to Nebalia bipes within the British Isles were ascribed to N.herbstii but these records should be treated with caution and deposited specimens re-examined in the light of the new records submitted for the British Isles. All 16 specimens of N. herbstii from Loch Fyne had epibionts similar to those discussed above for N. kocatasi .