ZooKeys
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Polyonyx socialis inhabits the tubes of a worm of the genus Chaetopterus sp. as a heterosexual pair and shares its host with other symbionts, either a male-female pair of the porcellan crab Polyonyx heok and the nudibranch Phestilla sp. or a male-female pair of the soft-bodied crab Tetrias sp.
The hosts were collected between 6 and 20 meters depth.
More rarely, the new species shares its host with a heterosexual pair of a larger pinnotherid crab species (pea crabs).
Polyonyx socialis belongs to the Polyonyx sinensis group, a globally distributed morphological lineage within the heterogeneous genus Polyonyx.
Most species in this group are obligate commensals of chaetopterid polychaetes.
The crustaceans have a transverse cylindrical habitus, which allows them to move laterally along the worm tubes with ease.
Polyonyx socialis is a relatively small species that lives on the inner walls of the polychaete tube.
The small size and flattened chelipeds and walking legs of the new species give it an advantage when living together in the same worm tube.
Etymology:
The specific name "socialis", which comes from the Latin meaning "social", refers to the gregarious behavior of the new species, as it tolerates and is tolerated by other symbionts inhabiting the same polychaete host.
Literatur reference:
Werding B, Hiller A (2019)
A new species of Polyonyx (Crustacea, Anomura, Porcellanidae) inhabiting polychaete-worm tubes (Annelida, Chaetopteridae) in the Indo-West Pacific.
ZooKeys 818: 25-34. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.818.30587
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The hosts were collected between 6 and 20 meters depth.
More rarely, the new species shares its host with a heterosexual pair of a larger pinnotherid crab species (pea crabs).
Polyonyx socialis belongs to the Polyonyx sinensis group, a globally distributed morphological lineage within the heterogeneous genus Polyonyx.
Most species in this group are obligate commensals of chaetopterid polychaetes.
The crustaceans have a transverse cylindrical habitus, which allows them to move laterally along the worm tubes with ease.
Polyonyx socialis is a relatively small species that lives on the inner walls of the polychaete tube.
The small size and flattened chelipeds and walking legs of the new species give it an advantage when living together in the same worm tube.
Etymology:
The specific name "socialis", which comes from the Latin meaning "social", refers to the gregarious behavior of the new species, as it tolerates and is tolerated by other symbionts inhabiting the same polychaete host.
Literatur reference:
Werding B, Hiller A (2019)
A new species of Polyonyx (Crustacea, Anomura, Porcellanidae) inhabiting polychaete-worm tubes (Annelida, Chaetopteridae) in the Indo-West Pacific.
ZooKeys 818: 25-34. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.818.30587
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
