Redescription of five Asterocheres species (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida) and a description of a new species discovered in the collections of the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam

Abstract

This paper re-examines the type material of five Asterocheres Boeck, 1859 species from the collection of Jan Stock deposited in the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam and describes a new species, Asterocheres hoi. Some taxonomically important appendages of these species are redescribed and illustrated. The most striking discrepancies with the original descriptions have been observed in: (1) the segmentation of antennule, antenna and mandibular palp; (2) the omission of some elements in various oral appendages such as the antenna, maxillule, maxilla and maxilliped; (3) the presence or not of a flaccid element on the maxilla; (4) the length of the siphon and the shape of the stylet. The redescribed species, Asterocheres genodon Stock, 1966, Asterocheres halichondriae Stock, 1966, Asterocheres maxillatus Stock, 1987, Asterocheres proboscideus Stock, 1966 and Asterocheres scutatus Stock, 1966, were also compared with their closest congeners. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1E9F6B4E-ADE0-4A84-91EB-222D391E88D7

Keywords:

• Copepoda
• Siphonostomatoida
• symbionts
• Jan Stock's collection

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Dirk Platvoet, curator at the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam, for the loan of the type material. We wish to thank Dr G.A. Boxshall (The Natural History Museum, London, UK) for the English revision of the manuscript.