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Abstract
The family Leptopontiidae comprises a group of harpacticoid copepods typically inhabiting marine interstitial habitats, but some species are known from brackish water, and other species are found in freshwater interstitial habitats. To date, seven species of Leptopontia Scott, Citation1902 have been described from North European coasts, the Mediterranean Sea, Galapagos and the Atlantic shelf of North America. In the present contribution, a new species of Leptopontia is described from the coast of Galicia (north-west Iberian Peninsula), Leptopontia ferrolensis sp. nov. The new species can easily be distinguished from its congeners by: the presence in the telson of a median spinous process that is flanked by two large processes (exceeding in size the median one), its large body size as compared with the other species of the genus, a pointed triangular rostrum with postero-lateral margins protruding near the base, the dense pattern of integumental pits, the setation of A1 and maxilla, and the ornamentation of P1–P4. The new species of Leptopontia described herein is also the first record of the genus in Spain. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:28433822-1E97-4057-842A-7077247FE89C
Acknowledgements
Guillermo Díaz Agras (Estación de Bioloxía Mariña da Graña, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, EBMG-USC), Xandro García-Regueira (EBMG-USC) and Dr Juan Moreira (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) helpfully collaborated during the samplings. The first author wishes to thank DZMB for the personal and technical support during her stay there. We are grateful to Mercedes Rivas Cascallar (USC) and Dr Terue C. Kihara (DZMB) for their help with the CLSM. We warmly thank Julia G. Carracedo for her revision of the English text. Dr Terue C. Kihara is also acknowledged for her useful comments on the manuscript. The comments by two reviewers are also appreciated.