A new species of Monocheres Stock (Copepoda, Siphonostomatoida, Asterocheridae) from shallow waters off Florida, USA: an unexpected discovery.

ABSTRACT: The rare asterocherid copepod genus Monocheres, ectosymbionts of corals and sponges, contains only two species, one from Mauritius (Indian Ocean) and the other one from Brazil (western Atlantic). From the analysis of the digestive caecum contents of the benthic hesionid polychaete Hesione picta Müller, 1858, an adult female of an undescribed species of Monocheres was unexpectedly recovered; it is the third species of this rare asterocherid genus. The new species, Monocheres sergioi sp. n., has the distinctive reduction of the fifth leg as a process with a single seta. It differs from its two other congeners by several characters including the presence of an inner basipodal spine, the armature details of the third exopodal segment of leg 1, the shape of the cephalosome and pedigerous somite

SUBMITTER: Suarez-Morales E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4978029 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature