A new species of Rhyncholagena Lang, 1944 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Miraciidae) from Palau

Jisu Yeom; Wonchoel Lee

doi:10.3897/zookeys.1180.109288

A new species of Rhyncholagena Lang, 1944 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Miraciidae) from Palau

Zookeys. 2023 Sep 20:1180:181-199. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1180.109288. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jisu Yeom¹, Wonchoel Lee¹

Affiliation

¹ Hanyang University, Department of Life Science, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea Hanyang University Seoul Republic of Korea.

Abstract

A new species of Miraciidae Dana, 1846, Rhyncholagenacuspissp. nov., was described from Palau. Morphological descriptions and gene fragment sequence barcoding were performed on the 11^th species of Rhyncholagena Lang, 1944 collected from sandy sediment samples in the subtidal zone of the Philippine Sea, Palau. Morphological characteristics were compared and an updated identification key was provided. A new species, Rhyncholagenacuspissp. nov., was found to be morphologically similar to Rhyncholagenalittoralis Por, 1967 and R.bermudensis Malt, 1990. This is the first record of the genus Rhyncholagena in Palau. The study provides basic data for future studies and highlights the need for continued exploration of marine biodiversity in Palau and other regions.

Keywords: 18S rRNA; Benthic copepod; Crustacea; meiofauna; mtCOI; taxonomy.

Jisu Yeom, Wonchoel Lee.