BENTHEOGENNEMA INTERMEDIA

BENTHEOGENNEMA INTERMEDIA

(SPENCE BATE, 1888)

( FIGS 2A, 3 AB, 4A)

Type material: Female, NHMUK:ecatalogue:1256676, ‘Challenger’ Exp., off Sierra Leone (holotype) .

Material examined: Four females and eight males (details in Supporting Information, Appendix S1).

Type locality: Off Sierra Leone (no further details) .

Diagnosis: Telson with three (rarely two) pairs of dorsolateral spines near ventral surface ( Fig. 2A). Thelycum: S6 without posterior scutum; S7 not shortened, nearly as long as S6 ( Fig. 3 AB). Petasma as in the genus diagnosis ( Fig. 4A).

Remarks: Thisspeciesdiffersfromother Bentheogennema in having 2–3 pairs of the dorsolateral spines. Like all other genera of Benthesicymidae , B. intermedia has S7 nearly as long as S6, while in the rest of Bentheogennema S7 is shortened (half as long as S6).

Geographical distribution: Atlantic, Indian and p r o b a b l y Pa c i f i c O c e a n. M o l e c u l a r d a t a s h o w low variance between Atlantic and Indian Ocean populations ( Fig. 7).