Allorchestes novizealandiae Dana 1852

Allorchestes novizealandiae Dana

Allorchestes novizealandiae Dana, 1852:207; 1853:894, pl. 61: fig. 1.—Hurley, 1957:927–931, figs. 147–169 [with synonymy].

DIAGNOSIS.—Mature male gnathopod 1 with rectangular hand bearing thick protrusion pointing distally, dactyl strongly overlapping palm, striate (“scaled”), slender, apically simple, medial face of hand on protrusion with row of small spines; posteroventral protrusions of epimera of medium extent; body dorsally smooth; cuticle unknown; spines of pereopods 3–5 sharp and slender; inner ramus of uropod 1 with two dorsal spines.

DISTRIBUTION.—New Zealand and Chatham Islands.

Hyale Rathke

The key to species from southern Australia is confounded by the absence of information on many attributes of H. humilis (Dana) and H. maroubrae Stebbing, but a few characters have been found in the descriptions of each sufficient to place them at the head of the key in an unnatural dichotomy.

In other publications I have described Hyale as bearing two apical locking spines on article 6 of pereopods 1–5. In reality, however, only the distalmost spine is a true locking spine as it is apically simple, and lacking a trigger, whereas the next proximal spine, often joining the locking spine to form a simulated pair of locking spines, usually bears a setular trigger and is, therefore, presumably a member of the regular series of marginal spines on article 6. However, this second locking spine is occasionally smaller or larger than other members of its class and, therefore, can be considered in many species to have some function complementary to the distalmost true locking spine.