Colossendeidae Explained

Colossendeidae is a family of sea spiders (class Pycnogonida).[1] This family includes more than 100 species distributed among six genera.[2] These sea spiders inhabit the deep sea mostly but are also found in shallower waters, especially in Antarctic and Arctic waters.[3]

Description

Sea spiders in this family can grow to giant sizes as adults, far larger than any other sea spiders. The largest sea spider, Colossendeis colossea, can reach a leg span of 70 cm.[4] Like most sea spiders, species in this family have four pairs of legs, except for three species (Decolopoda australis, D. qasimi, and Pentacolossendeis reticulata) with five leg pairs,[5] [6] and one species (Dodecolopoda mawsoni) with six leg pairs.[7] [8]

Sea spiders in this family have palps with 9 or 10 articles, with the first two basal segments very short. The ovigers have 10 articles, and each oviger ends in a strong terminal claw.[9] These sea spiders feature compound oviger spines arranged in fields or rows on a well formed strigilis. Both palps and ovigers are present in both males and females.[10] The proboscis is long, usually longer than the trunk. The trunk and legs are usually glabrous. The legs are long and have no auxiliary claws, and all legs feature gonopores.

Taxonomy

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: PycnoBase - Colossendeidae Jarzynsky, 1870 . 2024-08-01 . www.marinespecies.org.
  2. Web site: ITIS - Report: Colossendeidae . 2024-08-04 . www.itis.gov . en-US.
  3. Dietz . Lars . Dömel . Jana S. . Leese . Florian . Mahon . Andrew R. . Mayer . Christoph . 2019 . Phylogenomics of the longitarsal Colossendeidae: The evolutionary history of an Antarctic sea spider radiation . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 136 . 206–214 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2019.04.017 . 31002869 . 2019MolPE.136..206D . 1055-7903.
  4. Web site: Gardner . C.E. . Bain . B.A. . Govedich . F.R. . 2016 . Revision of Colossendeis colossea Wilson, 1881 (Pycnogonida Family Colossendeidae) . 2024-08-04 . The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology . en-US.
  5. Jayasree . V. . Sreepada . R. A. . Parulekar . A. H. . 1993 . An unusual giant pycnogonid (Pycnogonida-Colossendeidae) Decolopoda qasimi sp. nov. from Antarctic waters . Current Science . en . 65 . 2 . 179–181 . NIO Digital Repository Service.
  6. Hedgpeth . Joel W. . 1947 . The Pycnogonida of the Western North Atlantic and the Caribbean . Proceedings of the United States National Museum . 97 . 3216 . 157–342 [275] . 10.5479/si.00963801.97-3216.157 . Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  7. Calman . William Thomas . Gordon . Isabella . 1933-06-01 . A dodecapodous pycnogonid . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character . 113 . 781 . 107–115 . 10.1098/rspb.1933.0034. free .
  8. Hedgpeth . Joel W. . 1947 . On the evolutionary significance of the Pycnogonida . Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections . 106 . 18 . 1–53 . Smithsonian Research Online.
  9. Staples . David A. . 2007-12-31 . A new species of Colossendeis (Pycnogonida: Colossendeidae) together with records from Australian and New Zealand waters . Memoirs of Museum Victoria . English . 64 . 79–94 . 10.24199/j.mmv.2007.64.8.
  10. Cano-Sánchez . Esperanza . López-González . Pablo J. . 2016-12-15 . Basal articulation of the palps and ovigers in Antarctic Colossendeis (Pycnogonida; Colossendeidae) . Helgoland Marine Research . 70 . 1 . 22 . 10.1186/s10152-016-0474-7 . free . 1438-3888.

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