To my knowledge it belongs to the genus Cirolana but I just cannot get it down to species level with the guides I am using. Thus far, I cannot find anything with a pleotelson as the one in the image 002. This specimen was collected from a fouling community in East London harbour in South Africa at a depth of about 3m. Can anyone also please let me know if there are differences between males and females of this species as I have a similar looking one but the pleotelson is not as robust and knobbly. Thanks in advance!
First let me say, that I'm not an expert of species in your faunal region, but the first thing I thought of was some kind of Cymodoce (male), for the single species ocurring in our region (C. truncata) has these rows of tubercles too and also has hairy uropods.
Hi Ton,
Thanks for the suggestion. I have checked some of the Cymodoce species that occur in our region but it isn't any of the known species that occur here so I was hoping that someone else might recognise it. Are you referring to the tubercles on the pleonites or the tubercles on the pleotelson, or both? And also do you have a specific guide that you use in your region for marine inverts or isopods specifically? Thanks again.
Hello Koebraa,
I'm referring to the transversal row of tubercles on the pleonites. In the Netherlands we use a (Dutch) key by Huwae & Rappe (2003). waterpissebedden. Wet. med. 226. Their drawing of C. truncata is from Holthuis 1975 (see link). There is another guide for North-West Europe by Hayward & Ryland (1995) with a few more species, but I don't think your species is in it.
http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/148505
Ok thanks so much for your response Ton. Once I have discovered exactly which species it is I will gladly share the name here.
Family Cirolanidae, genus Cirolana Leach, 1818. Species--to be determined.
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