Schizotrema wittmanni

Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Crustacea
Class Malacostraca
Order Cumacea
Family Nannastacidae

Schizotrema wittmanni Petrescu & Sterrer, 2001

Taxonomic Characterization: Body with rugose tegument, dorsal spines on pleonites 1-3. Carapace represents 0.62 of entire body length; marked notch with a short serration on antero-ventral corner; upturned pseudorostrum with serrated anterior margin; eye lobe with two separated groups of lenses (three lenses, one pigmented, each).

Disposition of Specimens: Walsingham Cave (Bermuda Natural History Museum - BAMZ 2001193014; Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna - NHMW 19557).

Ecological Classification: Possibly stygophilic.

Size: 1.61 mm.

Number of Species in Genus: At least 11.

Genus Range: Along with S. agglutinanta, this is the first record of the genus Schizotrema from the Atlantic Ocean.

Species Range: Walsingham Cave, Bermuda. Also reported from Eastern Blue Cut in Bermuda's outer reef tract.

Closest Related Species: This is the first record of the genus Schizotrema agglutinanta from which it differs by granulose tegument, longer carapace, pleonites with spines and uropodal peduncle with teeth. The only presently recorded species of Schizotrema also with long and thin uropodal peduncle is S. depressum Calman, 1911 from the Indo-Pacific.

Habitat: Anchialine caves and coral reef areas of Bermuda.

Ecology: Cave specimens were primarily collected by divers using a 93 micron mesh plankton net from the surface of silty bottom sediments.

Life History: Only three specimens known are all males (Petrescu & Sterrer, 2001:117).

Evolutionary Origins: Cave populations probably colonized from open waters.

Conservation Status: Known from only three specimens, two collected in Walsingham Cave and the other from Eastern Blue Cut in Bermuda's outer reef tract.

References:

Calman, W.T. 1911. On new or rare Crustacea of the order Cumacea from the collection of the Copenhagen Museum. Part II. The families Nannastacidae and Diastylidae. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 18:341-400.
Petrescu, I. and W. Sterrer. 2001. Cumacea (Crustacea) from shallow waters of Bermuda. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, 103 B:89-128, 158 figures, 4 tables.

The Cumacean Page contains information on systematics, ecology, and biogeography of the cumaceans of the World. It is one part of a PEET project (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) funded by the Systematic Biology Program of the United States National Science Foundation.

Contributor: Iorgu Petrescu, Grigore Antipa Museum of Natural History, Bucharest, Romania