ARENOPONTIIDAE Martinez Arbizu & Moura, 1994


Nicholls (1945) established the genus Neoleptastacus to accomodate N. spinicaudatus from Western Australia. Unfortunately this genus was not included in the harpacticoid world monograph of Lang (1948). Perhaps because of that Chappuis (1952) described one new species from Madagascar in the genus Arenopontia (Arenopontia australis), although it was obvious that the new species belonged to the genus Neoleptastacus. Later on , Chappuis (1954) cited Nicholls' paper when he described another new species (Arenopontia acantha), without mention to the genus Neoleptastacus. Successively, he cited Nicholls' paper correctly (Chappuis 1954) and synonymized the genus Neoleptastacus with Arenopontia. This last opinion was supported by many authors (Noodt 1955; Chappuis and Delamare Deboutteville 1956; Chappuis 1958; Chappuis and Rouch 1961; Bodin 1967; Bozic 1967; Rao 1967; Ito 1968; Masry 1970; Cottarelli 1973; Mielke 1987).

The generic status of Neoleptastacus was supported only by Krishnaswamy (1957). As a compromise, Wells (1967) proposed a subgeneric status for Neoleptastacus, within the range of the genus Arenopontia. The Wells's proposition has been approved until now (Kunz 1971; Ito 1978; Bodiou and Colomines 1986; Wells 1986; Apostolov and Marinov 1988; Cottarelli et al. 1994; Martinez Arbizu and Moura 1994; Huys and Conroy-Dalton 1996).

The high level taxonomy of the genus Arenopontia (subg. Neoleptastacus) is more problematic. In former times (Kunz 1937; Nicholls 1945) it was placed in the family Canthocamptidae. Successively, Lang (1948) transferred it to the family Cylindropsyllidae. After Lang's monograph many new genera of the family Cylindropsyllidae were described, and the subfamily concept was no longer tenable (Huys and Conroy-Dalton 1993). Martinez Arbizu and Moura (1994) raised Lang's subfamily Leptopontiinae to family status, including the subfamilies Leptopontiinae, Psammopsyllinae and a new subfamily Arenopontiinae (in which was placed only the genus Arenopontia). In that revision the subfamily Cylindropsyllinae was allocated to the family Canthocamptidae. A similar opinion was presented later by Moura and Pottek (1998).

The subgeneric division of Arenopontia Kunz, 1937 has been recently abolished by Sak et al. (2008) , and both Arenopontia and Neoleptastacus Nicholls, 1945 have been upgraded to full generic rank [PDF]

At present the interstitial marine family Arenopontiidae includes five genera and 32 valid species [PDF].


ARENOPONTIA Kunz, 1937

  • Arenopontia arenarida (Pennak, 1942) [USA; intertidal sand]
  • Arenopontia dillonbeachia Lang, 1965 [USA; marine interstitial]
  • Arenopontia intermedia Rouch, 1962
  • Arenopontia nesaie Cottarelli, 1975 [Italy, Sardinia, Egypt; marine sand] [PDF]
  • Arenopontia orientalis (Krishnaswamy, 1957)
  • Arenopontia peterasi Mielke, 1982
  • Arenopontia problematica Masry, 1970 [Israel; marine sand]
  • Arenopontia riedli Lindgren, 1976 [USA; marine interstitial]
  • Arenopontia subterranea Kunz, 1937 [Germany; ground waters]
  • Arenopontia stygia Noodt, 1955


    NEOLEPTASTACUS Nicholls, 1945

  • Neoleptastacus acantha acantha Chappuis, 1954 [north Africa, Italy; marine sand]
  • Neoleptastacus acantha accraensis Lang, 1965 [USA; marine sand] *
  • Neoleptastacus africana africana Chappuis & Rouch, 1961 [Africa; marine psammon]
  • Neoleptastacus africana angolensis Kunz, 1971 [Africa, Angol; marine sand] **
  • Neoleptastacus australis Chappuis, 1952 [Madagascar; psammon]
  • Neoleptastacus breviarticulata (Mielke, 1975) [north Europe; marine sand] ***
  • Neoleptastacus chaufriassei Bodiou & Colomines, 1986 [Crozet island; marine interstitial]
  • Neoleptastacus clasingi (Mielke, 1985) [Chile; marine interstitial]
  • Neoleptastacus gussoae Cottarelli, 1973 [Cuba; marine coastal interstitial] [PDF]
  • Neoleptastacus huysi Karanovic, 2000 [Montenegro; marine interstitial]
  • Neoleptastacus indica Rao, 1967 [Asia; psammon]
  • Neoleptastacus ishikariana Ito, 1968 [Japan; marine sand]
  • Neoleptastacus longiremis Chappuis, 1954 [Madagascar; marine psammon]
  • Neoleptastacus ornamenta Mielke, 1987 [Chile; marine sand]
  • Neoleptastacus pacifica (Mielke, 1985) [Chile; marine interstitial]
  • Neoleptastacus phreatica Cottarelli, Bruno & Venanzetti, 1994 [Italy, Sardinia; ground fresh waters]
  • Neoleptastacus reductaspina Mielke, 1987 [Chile; marine sand]
  • Neoleptastacus sakagamii Ito, 1978 [Japan; marine interstitial]
  • Neoleptastacus secunda (Krishnaswamy, 1957) [India; marine sand]
  • Neoleptastacus speluncae Cottarelli, Bruno & Venanzetti, 1994 [Italy, Sardinia; ground fresh waters]
  • Neoleptastacus spicata (Mielke, 1985) [Chile; marine interstitial]
  • Neoleptastacus spinicaudata (Nicholls, 1945) [West Australia; marine psammon]
  • Neoleptastacus trisetosa (Milke, 1982) [Galapagos; marine interstitial] ***

    * According to Karanovic (2000) = Neoleptastacus accraensis Lang, 1965
    **According to Karanovic (2000) = Neoleptastacus angolensis Kunz, 1971
    *** Should be ascribed to the genus Pararenopontia Bodiou & Colomines, 1986 (Wells, 2007)


    WORLD KEY TO SPECIES IN: Karanovic T. 2000. Arenopontia (Neoleptastacus) huysi,sp. nov. (Crustacea, Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from marine interstitial of Montenegro (S.E. Europe). Helgol. Mar. Res., 54: 33-38.



    INCERTAE SEDIS

  • Arenopontia (?) ishikariana Ito sensu Mielke, 1987.


    PSAMMOLEPTASTACUS Pennak, 1942

  • Psammoletastacus arenaridus Pennak, 1942
  • Psammoletastacus barani Sak et al., 2008 [Turkey, Black Sea] [PDF]
  • Psammoleptastacus stygia (Noodt, 1955) [France; interstitial] [PDF]


    MESOPONTIA Sak et al., 2008 [PDF]

  • Mesopontia dillonbeachia Lang, 1965 [USA; marine interstitial]


    ONYCHOPONTIA Sak et al., 2008 [PDF]

  • Onychopontia orientalis (Krishnaswamy, 1957) [India; psammon]
  • Onychopontia intermedia (Rouch, 1962) [Brazil; marine interstitial]
  • Onychopontia nichollsi Sak et al., 2008 [West Australia; marine psammon] [PDF]
  • Onychopontia peteraxi (Mielke, 1982) [Galapagos; marine interstitial]




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