Abstract
Africorchestia, a new genus of coastal sand-hoppers (Amphipoda, Talitridae), is described from western Africa and southwestern Europe. Africorchestia includes five species: A.fischeri (H. Milne Edwards, 1830); A. quadrispinosa (KM. Barnard, 1916); A.skoogi (Stebbing, 1922); A. spinifera (Mateus, 1962); and A. tricornuta (Shoemaker, 1920). Along the west coast of Africa and the south-western coast of Europe there is a group of striking sand-hoppers with sculptured pleosomes and setae on the dactyli of pereopods 6 and 7. Although known since H. Milne Edwards (1830) first described Orchestia fischeri, they have never been incorporated into a distinct genus. In this paper we describe the genus, Africorchestia gen. nov. and include five species, Orchestia fischeri H. Milne Edwards, 1830, Talorchestia quadrispinosa K.H. Barnard, 1916, Talorchestia skoogi Stebbing, 1922, Talorchestia spinifera (Mateus, 1962) and Talorchestia tricornuta Shoemaker, 1920. Although males are known for all species females have only been described for A. skoogi and A. spinifera. Consequently sexual dimorphism is incompletely known for the genus.
NSTL