TOWARDS A REVISION OF AMEIRA BOECK, 1865 (HARPACTICOIDA, AMEIRIDAE) -REEXAMINATION OF THE A-TENELLA-GROUP AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FILEXILIA GEN-N AND GLABRAMEIRA GEN-N

A new genus Filexilia, is established to accommodate the A. tenella-gr oup of Ameira Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae), comprising A. at tenuata Thompson, 1893; A. tenella Sars, 1907; A. longicaudata Nicholl s, 1939; A. brevipes Kunz, 1954; A, pestae Petkovski, 1955; A. longifu rca Bodin, 1964; A. gravellicola Guille & Soyer, 1966; A. intermedia G alhano, 1970; A. brevipes pestae Petkovski, 1955 sensu Marinov(1971); A. brevipes Kunz, 1954 sensu Apostolov (1977); and A. tenella Sars, 19 07 sensu Kunz (1983). Ameira longicaudata Nicholls, 1939, a permanentl y invalid name as a primary homonym of A. longicaudata T. Scott, 1892 (now type-species of Stenocopia Sars, 1907), is replaced by Filexilia trisetosa nom. n. and designated as the type-species. As a result of r e-examination of the type material, A. attenuata is reinstated from it s status of species incertae sedis in Ameira (Lang, 1948) as Filexilia attenuata (Thompson, 1893) comb. n., and A. tenella Sars, 1907 is rel egated to a junior synonym of the latter. Ameira tenella Sars, 1907 se nsu Kunz (1983) is regarded as a distinct species F. azorica sp. n. Am eira longifurca, previously considered a probable synonym of A. tenell a by Moore (1976), is confirmed as a valid species F. longifurca (Bodi n, 1964) comb. n. Ameirapestae, relegated to a subspecies or forma of A. brevipes (Lang, 1965), is reinstated at the species level. Ameira b revipes pestae Petkovski, 1955 sensu Marinov (1971) is sufficiently di stinct from the latter to warrant the erection of a new species F. mar inovip. n. Ameira brevipes Kunz, 1954 sensu Apostolov (1977) is regard ed as species inquirenda in Filexilia whereas A. brevipes f. pontica A postolov, 1969 is rejected. Updated descriptions are given for both se xes off. trisetosa, F. attenuata and F. longifurca. Keys to the specie s of Filexilia and Sicameira Klie, 1950 are presented and the phylogen etic relationships of both genera are discussed. Ameira bengalensis Ra o & Ganapati, 1969 is transferred as the type species of Glabrameira g en. n. (C) 1997 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.