A NEW SPECIES OF PARAXANTHARUS (COPEPODA, CALANOIDA) FROM DEEP WATERS OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

The hitherto unknown female sex of the genus Paraxantharus (Copepoda, Calanoida) is described from the South Atlantic, based on the female of a new species of the genus that is described herein. The specimen was collected from abyssal depths close to the sea bed during the German expedition ANDEEP II in 2002. Paraxantharus victorbergeri sp. nov. differs from its only congener in details of the setation of the oral parts; by the oblique shape of the four teeth of the gnathobase of the mandible; by the poorly sclerotized, worm-like sensory seta of the distal praecoxal endite of the synocoxa of the maxilliped; and by the lateral spine on segment 2 of the P1 exopod, which is the shortest when compared with the lateral spines of exopodal segments 1 and 3. This new species of Paraxantharus as described below, brings the number of species in the genus to two. The present collection of P. victorbergeri constitutes only the second, and also the most northern record of the genus that is so far only known from the southern hemisphere.