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Abstract
This paper provides the first published record of Lepidodasys, a marine gastrotrich genus, from the Pacific. Two new species of Lepidodasys are described from the sublittoral sandy bottom off Tsushima Island, Japan, with morphological comparisons under scanning electronic microscopy. Lepidodasys laeviacus sp. nov. is allied to L. martini Remane in sharing the herring-bone pattern of the oval scales, but it is distinguished from the latter by the smooth scales lacking keel and the irregular array of 7–10 dorsal adhesive tubes in the trunk region. Lepidodasys tsushimaensis sp. nov. has cuticular armature with parallel orientation of smooth suboval scales, and is further characterized by 6–9 dorsal adhesive tubes along the median line in the intestinal region and ventrolateral adhesive tubes restricted in the pharyngeal region. A key to species of the genus Lepidodasys is provided.
Acknowledgements
We are deeply grateful to Dr Louise Allcock for improving the English. Sincere thanks are due to Dr W.D. Hummon for reading the manuscript and kindly suggesting information from his unpublished data, and to Dr M.A. Todaro for providing the valuable information on Lepidodasys unicarenatus. We appreciate Mr Byung-Chan Lee (Nano Practical Application Centre, Daegu, Korea) for providing the facilities for scanning electron microscopy. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund) (KRF-2008-359-C00034) and Mid-career Researcher Programme through an NRF grant funded by the MEST (No. 2010-0027678).