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| Last updated |
| 14 March 2008 |
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Rotundoecia teretivalvata (Iles, 1953)
Records: 481
When Müller (1891) first described Conchoecia rotundata from the Mediterranean, he noted there were
two forms, one short the other long. Iles (1953) analyzing material collected from the Benguela Current
region also found two forms of a species that matched Müller's description of C. rotundata. Again
there were two size forms, which Iles named separately C. teretivalvata (short form) and
C. skogsbergi (long form). He described this species himself, but without nominating a type locality, and cited
Skogsberg's (1920) description of C. rotundata from the Southern ocean as the type description of
C. skogsbergi. When Gooday, (1981) revised what he termed the 'skogsbergi complex', he found
this rather globular species was quite distinct from the more elongate forms that matched Müller's original
description of C. rotundata. He retained it in the genus Conchoecia, although Pouksen (1973)
had placed all the species of Müller's 'rotundata group' in the genus Metaconchoecia. This
genus had been established by Granata and Caporiaco (1949), but without designating a type species; so
technically Metaconchoecia remained a nomen nudem until Kempf (1986) designated M. rotundata
as its type species. Recently the rather heterogeneous assemblage of species classified genus Metaconchoecia,
which over the years had increased to >27, has be revised by Chavtur and Angel (in press). The assemblage
has been raised to the taxonomic rank of a tribe, the Metaconchoeciinae, and subdivided ten genera.
This small globose, shallow mesopelagic species has been classified in a monospecific genus. It is an
epipelagic to shallow mesopelagic species that can occur in quite high abundances (>1m³).
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| NE Atlantic |
n |
Mean mm |
s.d. |
Range mm |
| Female |
81 |
0.81 |
0.040 |
0.74-0.92 |
| Male |
56 |
0.81 |
0.025 |
0.76-0.86 |
| A-1 |
137 |
0.64 |
0.025 |
0.58-0.70 |
| A-2 |
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