Affiliations 

  • 1 Nagoya University, Toba, Japan
  • 2 University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan
  • 3 Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Washington D.C., United States
  • 4 Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
  • 5 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California, United States
  • 6 AN Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, Russia
PeerJ, 2023;11:e16346.
PMID: 37927790 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16346

Abstract

Two new species of Hesionidae, Parahesione pulvinata sp. nov. and Parahesione apiculata sp. nov. are described based on materials collected at tidal flats in Okinawa (Japan) from burrows of the ghost shrimps Neocallichirus jousseaumei and Glypturus armatus. The two new species are characterized by having eight enlarged cirri, dorsal cirrophores with dorsal foliose lobe and biramous parapodia, and by lacking median antenna. Parahesione apiculata sp. nov. has digitate lobes on the posterior margin of the dorsal foliose lobe (absent in P. pulvinata sp. nov.). The two new species were never found outside the ghost shrimp burrows, suggesting they are obligate symbionts. Phylogenetic analyses based on four concatenated genes suggest that the symbiotic lifestyle has evolved several times in Hesionidae.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.