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An organ of equilibrium in deep-sea isopods revealed: the statocyst of Macrostylidae (Crustacea, Peracarida, Janiroidea)

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A Correction to this article was published on 04 November 2017

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Abstract

Isopoda (Crustacea, Peracarida) from the deep sea are relatively well studied but little is known about their lifestyles or the functional morphology and anatomy. The isopod family Macrostylidae, for example, is rather small in size, usually less than 1 cm in body length, and occurs mainly in the deep sea between 3000–6000 m. This family features a paired subepidermal structure on the posterior end of the pleotelson. It has been reported only in this family and was first mentioned by Hansen in 1916, who hypothesised that it represents a pair of statocysts. Nevertheless, neither the structure nor the function has been investigated until now. The shape of some related features, however, has already been used for species differentiation thus indicating that phylogenetically as well as systematically valuable information may be inherent in this feature. Here, the anatomy of this structure was studied based on four species of Macrostylidae from the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It was digitally reconstructed from histological sections. The paired structure comprised two tergal invaginations, each with distinct muscular attachments and a modified seta that distally held a statocyst on the shaft. This resembles equilibrium organs reported from other organisms and thus the statocysts hypothesis seems reliable. Using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, the substance of the statolith could be determined as silicon dioxide. Based on these findings, the function of this organ and its potential phylogenetic and ecological implications are discussed.

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  • 04 November 2017

    Unfortunately, Table 1 was incorrectly published in the original version and the same is corrected here in this erratum. The original article was corrected.

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Acknowledgements

The captain and crew of R/V Sonne and R/V Bjarni Sæmundssonduring during the cruises SO223, SO237 and BIOICE B-13-95 are thanked for their great job and guaranteeing successful campaigns. Nils Brenke, Enrico Schwabe, Nikolaus Elsner, Marina Malyutina, Saskia Brix, Sarah Schnurr, Jörundur Svavarsson, and all involved in gear deployment, sieving, and sample sorting are acknowledged for their efforts. Macrostylid material was made available to Torben Riehl by Chad T. Walter if the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., by Christine Lebeau of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, C. Oliver Coleman of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Miranda Lowe of the Natural History Museum, London, Åse Wilhelmsen of the Natural History Museum, Oslo, Jørgen Olesen of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Gerdes Research Group, Kathrin Phillips Bussau and Petra Wagner of the Center of Natural History Hamburg, George D.F. (Buz) Wilson and Stephen Keable, Australian Museum, Sydney, Dmitry Ivanov of the Zoological Museum of the Moscow State University with the kind help of Nataliya Budaeva, and by Sadie Mills, NIWA, Wellington. Very special thanks goes to Renate Walter who kindly operated the SEM and Sabine Gaude who prepared the histological sections for the EDX. The work of two anonymous reviewers is kindly acknowledged. This work was realised within the project Vema-TRANSIT, which received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under grant no 03G0237A.

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  1. Centre of Natural History (CeNak), Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Simon Bober

  2. Department Marine Zoology, Crustacea, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany

    Torben Riehl & Angelika Brandt

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Correspondence to Simon Bober.

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The original version of this article was revised: Table 1 was incorrectly published in the original version and the same is corrected here.

A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-017-0384-5.

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Bober, S., Riehl, T. & Brandt, A. An organ of equilibrium in deep-sea isopods revealed: the statocyst of Macrostylidae (Crustacea, Peracarida, Janiroidea). Zoomorphology 137, 71–82 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-017-0376-5

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