Thymopides Knowpia

Thymopides
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Pleocyemata
Family:	Nephropidae
Genus:	Thymopides; Burukovsky & Averin, 1977
Species
	Thymopides grobovi (Burukovsky & Averin, 1976); Thymopides laurentae Segonzac & Macpherson, 2003;
Synonyms
	Bellator Burukovsky & Averin, 1976

Thymopides is a genus of deep-water lobsters, comprising the two species Thymopides grobovi and Thymopides laurentae.

Distribution edit

Two species are included in the genus Thymopides.^[1]

Thymopides grobovi is found around Heard Island and the Kerguelen Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean at depths of 525–1,220 metres (1,722–4,003 ft).^[2]
Thymopides laurentae is only known from a single hydrothermal vent on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a depth of 3,480 m (11,420 ft) (23°22.94′N 44°56.09′W / 23.38233°N 44.93483°W / 23.38233; -44.93483).^[2]

Description edit

Thymopides differs from related genera such as Homarus, Homarinus and Nephrops in having the first pair of pereiopods of similar size and shape, rather than one "crusher" and one "cutter" claw. It differs from others, such as Metanephrops and Eunephrops by the lack of a carina behind the antennal spine, by the smaller size of some spines and by the smaller, unpigmented eyes.^[2]

Taxonomy edit

The genus was first described by R. N. Burukovsky and B. S. Averin in 1976 under the name Bellator, the Latine word for "warrior", in a paper in the Russian Journal of Zoology (Зоологический Журнал, Zoologicheskij Zhurnal). After Lipke Holthuis informed the authors that a genus already existed called Bellator, they published a replacement name in a paper in the journal Crustaceana. That new name was Thymopides, referring to the close resemblance between the new genus and the genus Thymops.^[3]

In 2003, a second species was described, T. laurentae, commemorating Michèle de Saint Laurent.^[2]

References edit

^ Tin-Yam Chan (2010). Martyn E. Y. Low & S. H. Tan (eds.). "Annotated checklist of the world's marine lobsters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Astacidea, Glypheidea, Achelata, Polychelida)" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (Suppl 23): 153–181. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-16.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Michel Segonzac & Enrique Macpherson (2003). "A new deep-sea lobster of the genus Thymopides (Crustacea: Decapoda: Nephropidae) collected near the hydrothermal vent Snake Pit, Mid-Atlantic Ridge" (PDF). Cahiers de Biologie Marine. 44: 361–367.
^ R. N. Burukovsky & B. S. Averin (1977). "A replacement name, Thymopides, proposed for the preoccupied generic name Bellator (Decapoda, Nephropidae)" (PDF). Crustaceana. 32 (2): 216. doi:10.1163/156854077x00656.