A new species of Neocirolana Hale, 1925 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cirolanidae) collected during the Royal Society Expedition to Aldabra 1967–69, western Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT

Neocirolana taylori sp. nov. is described from Picard Island, Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles, the first record of the genus from the tropical Western Indian Ocean and the eleventh species in the genus. The species is characterised by the ovate body shape with a strongly- vaulted dorsum, lack of dorsal nodules and pleotelson carinae, having prominent and strongly-produced coxae on pereonites 5 to 7 and robust pereopods. Neocirolana taylori was collected from the intertidal and shallow subtidal reef crest habitats.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:83825998-C8C9-4CB6-A359-C494ED126BE7

KEYWORDS:

• Western Indian Ocean
• Cymothooidea
• Cymothoida
• taxonomy
• coral reefs

Acknowledgements

We thank the Natural History Museum, London for departmental funding in support of NLB’s research visit in 2018. We are also grateful to Harry Taylor (NHM) for photography of the material. This is contribution number 357 from the North-West University–Water Research Group.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.