A new species of Athelges (Crustacea, Isopoda, Epicaridea, Bopyridae) from Japan, with morphological and DNA barcode data
<i>Athelges pileus</i> <b>sp. nov</b>. is described as an abdominal bopyrid of the hermit crab <i>Diogenes edwardsii</i> collected from the Noto Peninsula, Japan. <i>Athelges pileus</i> <b>sp. nov</b>. is distinguished from its congeners by the following combination of characters. Female: head deeply sunk in thorax, anterolateral margin of head with pair of notches; anterior margin of frontal lamina concave; merus of pereopod 1 with broad and long projection ventrally; pereopods 5 and 6 with large gap between them; pleomeres 1-4 each with subovate biramous pleopods; each pleopod with peduncle, becoming smaller posteriorly; pleotelson with mushroom-shaped end. Male: pleon subovate with anal cone distally. The present species is the 14<sup>th</sup> member of the genus <i>Athelges</i>, and the second species from Asia. This is the second species of <i>Athelges</i> infesting <i>Diogenes edwardsii</i>. We also provide a partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene (658 bp), mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene (482 bp), and nuclear 18S rRNA (724 bp) as a DNA barcode for the species. We show by molecular phylogenetic analysis that the present species is distinct from <i>A. takanoshimensis</i>.
Authors
- Tomoyuki Nakano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0109-1289)
- Hiroki Fujita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4018-5727)
- Haruki Shinoda
- Kenji Toyota
Institutions
- Hiroshima University (JP)
- Tokyo University of Science (JP)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Kanagawa University (JP)
- Higashihiroshima Medical Center (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ZooKeys
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1270.160197
- Primary Topic
- Subterranean biodiversity and taxonomy
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Kanazawa University