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Zoology Publications from Victoria University of Wellington—Nos. 78, 79 and 80
[Introduction]
Seven species have been recorded from the New Zealand region: Alope spinifrons (H. Milne-Edwards, 1837), Bathyhippolyte yaldwyni Hayashi & Miyake, 1970, Hippolysmata morelandi Yaldwyn, 1971, Hippolyte bifidirostris (Miers, 1876), H. multicolorata Yaldwyn, 1971, Nauticaris marionis Bate, 1888, Tozeuma novaezealandiae Borradaile, 1916. Larvae of five of these species have been described by Packer (1983). The remaining two species are Hippolysmata morelandi, a shallow water species from northern New Zealand, and Bathyhippolyte yaldwyni, which has been taken in deep water off the east cost of the South Island.
The eggs of B. yaldwyni are large and few in number, and so this species almost certainly has abbreviated development, and the larvae page 8
should easily be distinguished from those of the other New Zealand Hippolytidae.
Larvae of Hippolysmata morelandi should also easily be identified. Known larvae of the genus Hippolysmata are characterised by the enormous size and oar-like propodus of pereiopod 5 (Fig. 3C). Gurney (1937) summarised larval characters of this genus.
Only the zoea 1 of Nauticaris marionis is known, and no other larvae of the genus have been described. Hence, without information on later larvae of this genus, it is not possible to construct a key to larvae of the New Zealand Hippolytidae. Therefore, in place of such a key, characteristic features of the known New Zealand hippolytid larvae are provided below.
There is such a wide variation of form among larvae of this family that it is difficult to provide a list of characters by which they can be recognised as a group. The following combination of characters is shared by the larvae of all New Zealand species except those of Hippolysmata morelandi for which characters 1, 3 and 7 do not apply: