Curtipleon heterochelatum, a New Species of Tanaidacea (Crustacea : Peracarida) from the Andaman Sea

Abstract

A new tanaidacean species of the family Metapseudidae, Curtipleon heterochelatum, is described and illustrated on the basis of one male and five female specimens from the Andaman Sea. A significant asymmetry in the male chelipeds was observed. The new species can be separated from C. carinatoides (Bacescu, 1976) by the absence of spines on the anterior margin of the cephalothorax, and from C. carinatum (Makkaveeva, 1971) by the many spines on the cheliped basis and the distally directed subdistal spine on the dorsal surface of the male cheliped carpus. A revised diagnosis to Curtipleon and a key to the species of the genus are included.