Species Achelia assimilis (Haswell, 1884)

Small form of Achelia assimilis, from Stock (1954)

© Copyright C. Arango. Queensland Museum.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Ammothea assimilis Haswell, W.A. 1884. On the Pycnogonida of the Australian coast, with descriptions of new species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 9: 1021-1034 [1026].

  Type data:

   Status unknown, AM G5 220, Clark Island, NSW, Tasman Sea [33° 51' 0" S, 151° 15' 0" E].
• Achelia variabilis Stock, J.H. 1954. Pycnogonida from Indo-West Pacific, Australian and New Zealand waters. Papers from Dr. Th. Mortensen's Pacific Expedition 1914-1916. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening i Kjøbenhavn 116: 1-168 [100].
• Ammothea wilsoni Schimkewitsch, W. 1887. Sur les Pantopodes de l'expedition du Vettor Pisani. (Note preliminaire). Zoologischer Anzeiger 10(251): 271-272.
• Nymphopsis denticulata Gordon, I. 1932. Pycnogonida. Discovery Reports 6: 1-138.

Generic Combinations

• Achelia assimilis (Haswell, 1884). —
  Child, C.A. 1996. Pycnogonida of the western Pacific Islands, XIII. Collections from Indonesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 109(3): 540-559

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IMCRA

Timor Transition (1), Tasmania Province (10), Macquarie Island Province (24), Northern Shelf Province (25), Northwest Shelf Transition (26), Northwest Shelf Province (27), Central Western Shelf Province (29), Southwest Shelf Transition (30), Southwest Shelf Province (31), Spencer Gulf Shelf Province (33), Western Bass Strait Shelf Transition (34), Bass Strait Shelf Province (35), Tasmanian Shelf Province (36), Southeast Shelf Transition (37), Central Eastern Shelf Province (38), Central Eastern Shelf Transition (39), Northeast Shelf Province (40), Northeast Shelf Transition (41)

Ecological Descriptors

Adults: continental shelf, continental slope, intertidal, subtidal.

Taxonomic Notes

Whitelegge (1889) listed this species under its original name, Ammothea assimilis, in his list of fauna from Port Jackson.

Fry and Hedgpeth (1969) placed A. assimilis into the subgenus Ignavogriphus, but this (and the other subgenera in the same paper) have been largely ignored.

Stock (1954) divided this variable species into a large and a small form, but did not attempt to make them two separate species. His large and small forms were both from New Zealand specimens.

General References

Bamber, R.N. 2008. Sea-spiders (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Moreton Bay, Queensland. pp. 131-142 in Davie, P.J.F. & Phillips, J.A. (eds). Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Marine Biological Workshop. The Marine Flora and Fauna of Moreton Bay, Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 54(1) [132] (new records, notes)

History of changes