Vonimetopa longimana sp.n. (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Stenothoidae), a new amphipod species from the Russian coasts of the Sea of Japan

A new amphipod species, Vonimetopa longimana sp.n., is described from the coastal shallow waters of the Strait of Tartary (Sea of Japan) off southwestern Sakhalin Island.The new species is assigned to the genus Vonimetopa Barnard et Karaman, 1987 due to it is similarity in the main morphological characters: in the structure of the mouthparts (palp of mandible l-articulate, palp of maxilla 1 l-articulate, inner plate of maxilla 2 ordinary, inner plates of maxillipeds well separated), the structure of gnathopods 1 (small, simple, merus incipiently chelate; carpus short, unlobed; propodus elongate, linear), the shape of pleonites (pleonite 3 lacking dorsal process), urosomites (urosomite 1 not carinate posterodorsally) and telson (ordinary, flat).However, Vonimetopa longimana sp.n.differs from other the congeners by a long narrow propodus of gnathopod 2 with the vertical palm.The identificationk key to the species of the genus Vonimetopa is provided.How to cite this paper: