A new species of the genus Lepechinella Stebbing, 1908 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Lepechinellidae) from Japan

A new species of lepechinellid amphipod, Lepechinella macrospinosa sp. nov., is described from off Yakushima Island, Japan. The present new species closely resembles Lepechinella curvispinosa Pirlot, 1933 sharing strongly enlarged and backward-curved posterodorsal tooth on the pleonites 1-3. However, the present new species can be distinguished from L. curvispinosa by the longer pereopod 5 carpus, different shape of the posterodorsal tooth on pleonite 3 and urosomite 1, presence of the posteroventral tooth on the epimeral plates 1-3, and longer uropod 3 of which outer and inner rami are subequal in length. In addition, a partial DNA sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of this species was determined for future studies.