Cirolana westbyi, (Isopoda: Cirolanidae) a new species in the ‘Cirolana parva-group’ from the Turneffe Atoll, Belize

ABSTRACT

Cirolana westbyi n. sp., a novel species in the ‘Cirolana parva-group’ is described from the Turneffe Atoll, Belize using an integrated molecular and morphological approach. The 18S ribosomal RNA gene for C. westbyi n. sp. and also for Cirolana parva Hansen, 1890 are provided, in addition to new primers, developed for the Cirolanidae 18S gene.

The key morphological character for separating C. westbyi n. sp. from other Cirolana is the shape of the uropodal rami: the uropodal endopod is convex on the lateral side while the mesial side is straight. Comparison of the 18S gene shows that C. parva is 95.96% identical to C. westbyi n. sp. across 68% coverage, but due to two unique insertions (‘INS-1’ and ‘INS-2’) into the 18S gene of C westbyi n. sp., which may function as loop regions, they appear to be genetically distinct and different species. This is also supported by phylogenetic analysis, which also highlights some potential paraphyly between the three families, Cirolanidae, Aegidae and Corallanidae.

Our morphological description of a new species of cirolanid along with a phylogenetic support using 18S sequence data for species within and around the Cirolanidae, provides greater context for the ‘Cirolana parva-group’.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:71EBBA1C-E82A-4BBE-B567-3FE3359EEFA9

KEYWORDS:

• Crustacea
• Isopoda
• systematics
• phylogenetics
• morphology

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Leopold Westby, Leonel Ramierez, and associated fishermen for contacting us to help with the identification of this undescribed species, and to TASA agents Andrew Baptist and Roy Young. The collection of specimens was advanced by the help of students from Boston University, including: Xuqing Chen, Nicolas Colletier, Tomoki Hayakawa, Madison Killebrew, Grace Maddox, Emma Martin, Ena Miculinic, Yaelle Sarid-Segal, Elliott Snow, Sadie Thompson, John Van Schoick and Samuel Wright. We would also like to thank the Florida Museum of Natural History for providing the Cirolana parva specimen (FMNH #44489) for DNA sequence analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

Karina Scavo Lord and Kathryn Lesneski were first approached by TASA (Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association) staff regarding Leopold Westby’s request for help with the organisms, as he found them in his lobster traps. RDR, DCB, Rebecca Branconia, JB and John Majoris then designed the study and carried out field collections. LAJ identified the species morphologically and performed all dissections and sketches. LAJ and JB conducted the gene sequencing and JB performed the phylogenetics. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. Funding for field collections and laboratory analysis was supported by DCB and RDR.