Five new coexisting species of copepod crustaceans of the genus Spaniomolgus (Poecilostomatoida: Rhynchomolgidae), symbionts of the stony coral Stylophora pistillata (Scleractinia)

By

Conradi Barrena, Mercedes
Bandera, Eugenia
Mudrova, Sofya
Ivanenko, Viatcheslav

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

791

Pages

71-95

Subjects

Biodiversity , Copepoda , coral reefs , Crustacea , Pocilloporidae , Red Sea , Symbiosis

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.791.28775

 

Abstract

Spaniomolgus is a symbiotic genus of copepods of the poecilostomatoid family Rhynchomolgidae and is known to be associated with shallow-water reef-building hermatypic corals. Three species of this genus were previously found only in washings of Acropora and Stylophora in northern Madagascar. Four coral morphotypes of Stylophorapistillata (Pocilloporidae) were collected by SCUBA at 1 to 28 m depth in five sites in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea in 2013. Copepods found on these colonies were studied using light, confocal and scanning electron microscopy. Five new, and one known, species of the genus Spaniomolgus were discovered in washings and inside the galls of the hermatypic coral S.pistillata. The description of these new species (Spaniomolgusglobussp. n., S.stylophorussp. n., S.dentatussp. n., S.maculatussp. n., and S.acutussp. n.) and a key for the identification of all of its congeners is provided herein.