Three new species of the deep-sea genus Neotanais Beddard (Crustacea: Peracarida)

Three new species of the deep-water family Neotanaididae Lang are described. Neotanais minimus n. sp. and N. curvimanus n. sp. were collected from the Gulf of Mexico and are the first species to be described from this region. Neotanais minimus cannot be grouped with other Neotanais species, since it displays characters from all groupings. Neotanais curvimanus has strong affinities to the ' americanus ' group but can be separated by the short pereonite 6 and by the presence of many setulose setae lateral on the pleonites. Male N. curvimanus can easily be separated from all other species of the genus by the cheliped fixed finger being only half as long as the dactylus and the dactylus being incurved from fixed finger at an angle of about 40degrees. Neotanais noelietaiti n. sp. was found off south-east Australia and is the first Neotanais species to be described from Australian waters. It also has strong affinities to the ' americanus ' group but can be distinguished by the complete lack of a midventral keel and by the uropodal exopod being as long as the endopod article 1.