Acanthocope Beddard 1885

Acanthocope Beddard, 1885

Acanthocope Beddard, 1885: 922; 1886: 78; Menzies, 1956: 2; 1962: 152; Wolff, 1962: 110; Chardy, 1972: 386; Malyutina, 1998: 343 –346; 1999: 288–289.

Type species: Acanthocope spinicauda Beddard, 1885.

Diagnosis: Head without dorsal spines, interantennular distance more than half as wide as head, frontal margin sloping, nearly straight from above. Lateral margins of pereonites 1–4 rounded; natasome completely fused, pereonites 5–7 with lateral spines; pleotelson with 2 pairs of lateral spines and 1 terminal spine. Antenna 1 article 1 without spines, flagellum short, with 3–4 articles in females and long, multiarticulated in males; antenna 2 articles 1 and 2 fused without suture; article 2 with distomedial spine, article 3 without squama, with distomedial and distolateral spines; mandibular palp absent or with 1 or 2 articles, if of 3 articles, thin, with last article elongate and straight; maxillipedal palp article 2 largest, with expanded lateral margin, article 3 narrower, triangular. Pereopods 1–4 similar, slender; coxa of pereopod 1 short and rounded, coxae of pereopods 2–4 elongate, projected into anterior spines; pereopods 5–7 with rather narrow crescent­shaped carpi and elongate oval propodi, smaller than carpi; dactyli without dorsal unguis, with 2–3 long distodorsal setae. Male pleopods 1 and 2 forming dome­like operculum; pleopods 1 half or less as long as pleopods 2, covering basal gap between pleopods 2, like a deeply­keeled boat; pleopods 2 with ventral projection near midlength of protopod, endopod and exopod inserting at basal part of protopod. Uropods cylindrical, elongate, uniramous or with tiny exopod.

Distribution: Most species of Acanthocope are known only from the type locality and from a single specimen. Only three species are known from the Northern Hemisphere: two from the north Atlantic (54–56 N, 2456–3465 m) and one from the northwest Pacific (44 N, 4690–4720 m). All other species were found from tropical latitudes to the Southern Ocean: western Atlantic (17 N, 1224 m), 1 species; eastern Pacific (5 N–42 S, 2650– 3670 m), 3 species; southwest Pacific (29 S, 3400 m), 1 species; northwest Indian Ocean (13 N, 1830 m), 1 species; southeast Indian Ocean (50 S, 3290 m), 1 species; and south Atlantic (16 S–65 S, 3760–5585 m), 7 species. Only A. galatheae Wolff, 1962 is widely distributed, known from the Gulf of Panama of the east Pacific (5 49’ N 78 52’W, 3270– 3670 m) and the south Atlantic (16 13.3’S 0 5 26.8’E – 31 24.8’S 0 1 50’W, 4725–5585 m). The new record of the species from the Antarctic abyssal (64–66 S, 39–43°W, 4647–4778 m) lies between these two localities. A new locality is recorded for A. annulatus Menzies, 1962 which was described from 4885 m southwest of Cape Town (36°34’S 14°08’E), the new specimens were found near the Antarctic Peninsula (59°40’S, 57°35’W, 3689 m). For locations of all species of Acanthocope see distribution map (Fig. 1).