Pycnogonida from Pantelleria and Catania, Sicily

Abstract

The paper reports on two small collections from the island of Pantelleria and the vicinity of Catania, Sicily. The former locality (mostly surface samples) yielded 52 specimens of 9 species in 9 samples, the latter 190 specimens of 14 species in 11 samples. One species of Nymphon proved to be new to science; it belongs to an uniunguiculate species group with N. longicoxa Hoek, 1881, and N. prolatum Fage, 1942, as nearest relatives. The question of Tanystylum in the Mediterranean is raised again and it is decided that there are two species, T. conirostrum (Dohrn, 1881) and T. orbiculare Wilson, 1878, respectively. The male of Ammothella longioculata Faraggiana, 1940 is figured for the first time in order to compare it with A. longipes (Dohrn, 1881). Precisions about external morphological characters of Ammothella uniunguiculata (Dohrn, 1881) are given, whereas Anoplodactylus angulatus (Dohrn, 1881) is compared with A. virescens (Hodge, 1864)