Euchaeta pubera Sars G. O. 1907

Euchaeta pubera Sars, 1907

MALE.—Body and prosome lengths based on 45 specimens, 2.92-3.52 mm and 2.16-2.64 mm. respectively. Body slender. Dorsally, frontal eminence of forehead produced into a triangular form (Figure 4f). Rostrum well developed (Figure 4h), pointing downward. Posterolateral corners of metasome nearly symmetrical. Urosome about two-fifths length of prosome and covered with hair. Appendicular caudal setae geniculated and smaller than other caudal setae.

Antennule reaching about distal end of second urosomal segment. Antenna with reduced setae on coxa, basis, and first endopodal segment (Figure 4i). Feeding apparatus of oral appendanges (Figure 4j,k) reduced as usual in the genus. Coxa of maxilliped with three distal setae only (Figure 4l). Exopod of first leg (Figure 4m) three segmented; last two segments each with an external spine. Endopod of second leg (Figure 4n) with a short line representing a fused joint. Exopod with external spines of similar size. Third and fourth legs with three-segmented endopods and exopods. Distal exopodal segment of each fifth leg tapering in a long spiniform process (Figure 4o). Serrated lamella of second exopodal segment of left fifth leg nearly triangular in shape, with uniformly small teeth along most of internal margin and only middle portion of external margin (Figure 4p). Digitiform process tapering into a slightly curved spiniform process (Figure 4q).

DISTRIBUTION.—Euchaeta pubera was originally described by Sars (1907) from the North Atlantic and has been known to occur, usually in small numbers, in the tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Grice (1969) recorded the species in the Gulf of Mexico. In the present study, the species was represented by 214 females and 45 males, most of which were found in samples from depths of 100 to 200 m in the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean Sea.