Wormshrimps are a poorly understood group of Amphipod Crustaceans
found living in a variety of subterranean environments, including the
interstitial spaces in sandy sediments from beaches to the deep ocean floors,
to cave systems and fresh and brackish groundwater systems on continents. They
are thought to be common in sandy environments on tropical reefs, but how they
are dispersed is a mystery, as their larvae are not free-swimming and they
produce low numbers of eggs (large numbers of eggs are thought to be a
pre-requisite for trans-oceanic distribution, as most are expected to be lost
without reaching a new home).
In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 22 October 2014, RonaldVonk of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and the Institute forBiodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam, and DamiáJaume of the Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, describe a new
species of Wormshrimp from coral reef sand off Magoodhoo Island in the
Maldives.
The new species is placed in the genus Ingolfiella and given the specific name maldivensis, in reference to the area where it was found. The
species is described from six female specimens, one collected from Blue Cove
and five from Dharamboodhoo Reef, both
close to Magoodhoo Island in the Maldive Archipelago, in the central Indian Ocean. The Ingolfiella maldivensisspecimens
range from 1.55 to 1.85 mm in length. It is an elongate, worm-like Crustacean,
with lateral lobes on its head and javelin-shaped spines on its mouthparts.
Ingolfiella
maldivensis, female 1.80 mm (including telescoped
body somites). Arrows point to gills and oostegites on the third and fourth
pereiopods, and on gills on the fifth pereiopod. Vonk & Jaume (2014).
Ingolfiella maldivensis closely resembles Ingolfiella quadridentata,
a species known only from Curaçao in the Caribbean. Wormshrimps often resemble
other species from distant locations living in similar environments far more
than they resemble species living close by in different environments. Vonk and
Jaume suggest that this is due to the group being particularly prone to
parallel evolution (distantly related species developing similar features in
response to similar environmental pressures, rather than some unknown
distribution method.
See also…
Amphipods are (mostly) small, laterally compressed Crustaceans with
differentiated legs (i.e. not all their legs are the same). Female
Amphipods carry their eggs in brood pouches till they hatch; the young
resemble the adults and typically reach maturity after about six molts.
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