Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-9b74x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-07T14:45:19.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Four species of Mesanthura (Crustacea: Isopoda: Anthuroidea) from Japan, including the description of a new species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2025

Shoki Shiraki Open the ORCID record for Shoki Shiraki [Opens in a new window]  and
Keiichi Kakui Open the ORCID record for Keiichi Kakui [Opens in a new window]
Shoki Shiraki*
Affiliation:
Department of Natural History Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
Keiichi Kakui
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
*
Corresponding author: Shoki Shiraki; Email: white-tree0703@eis.hokudai.ac.jp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Anthuroid isopods in the genus Mesanthura (52 valid species) typically have a body with conspicuous dorsal pigmentation, with differences in the female pigmentation pattern being one of the main characters used to distinguish species. Five Mesanthura species have been reported to date from Japan. Here, we describe Mesanthura sol sp. nov. from Irabu Island and Okinawa main island, Okinawa, Japan, and illustrate its sexual dimorphism in colour pattern, with conspecificity between males and females confirmed with molecular data. We provide a description of Mesanthura miyakoensis based on specimens collected from Kochi, Shikoku, Japan. We present the first records of Mesanthura cinctula and Mesanthura nigrodorsalis, following their original descriptions. Finally, we provide partial sequences of the 16S rRNA gene for these four species and present a phylogenetic tree based on the sequences.

Keywords

AnthuridaecolourCymothoidapigmentationtaxonomy

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 105 , 2025 , e48
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

ZooBank urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:667CCEDF-C554-4A7A-8754-C9C6EDC7604A

References

Barnard, KH (1914) Contributions to the crustacean fauna of South Africa. 3. Additions to the marine Isopoda, with notes on some previously incompletely known species. Annals of the South African Museum 10, .Google Scholar
Barnard, KH (1925) A revision of the family Anthuridae (Crustacea Isopoda), with remarks on certain morphological peculiarities. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 36, 109–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyko, CB, Bruce, NL, Hadfield, KA, Merrin, KL, Ota, Y and Poore, GCB (2025) World marine, freshwater and terrestrial isopod crustaceans database. Mesanthura Barnard, 1914. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=205305 on 2025-03-20… accessed online 20 March 2025Google Scholar
Castresana, J (2000) Selection of conserved blocks from multiple alignments for their use in phylogenetic analysis. Molecular Biology and Evolution 17, 540–552.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chew, M, Abdul Rahim, A and Haji Ross, OB (2014) Tinggianthura alba: A new genus and species of Anthuridae (Isopoda, Cymothoida, Anthuroidea) from Pulau Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia with an updated key to the genera of Anthuridae. PLoS One 9, .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guindon, S, Dufayard, JF, Lefort, V, Anisimova, M, Hordijk, W and Gascuel, O (2010) New algorithms and methods to estimate maximum-likelihood phylogenies: Assessing the performance of PhyML 3.0. Systematic Biology 59, 307–321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoang, DT, Chernomor, O, von Haeseler, A, Minh, BQ and Vinh, LS (2018) UFBoot2: Improving the ultrafast bootstrap approximation. Molecular Biology and Evolution 35, 518–522.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kakui, K, Fukuchi, J and Ohta, M (2023) Diexanthema hakuhomaruae sp. nov. (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Nicothoidae) from the hadal zone in the northwestern Pacific, with an 18S molecular phylogeny. Acta Parasitologica 68, 413–419.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalyaanamoorthy, S, Minh, BQ, Wong, TKF, von Haeseler A, and Jermiin, LS (2017) ModelFinder: Fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods 14, 587–589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katoh, K, Rozewicki, J and Yamada, KD (2019) MAFFT online service: Multiple sequence alignment, interactive sequence choice and visualization. Briefings in Bioinformatics 20, 1160–1166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katoh, K and Standley, DM (2013) MAFFT multiple sequence alignment software version 7: Improvements in performance and usability. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30, 772–780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katoh, K and Toh, H (2008) Recent developments in the MAFFT multiple sequence alignment program. Briefings in Bioinformatics 9, 286–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kensley, B (1987) A re-evaluation of the systematics of K. H. Barnard’s review of anthuridean isopods. Steenstrupia 13, 101–139.Google Scholar
Kimura, M (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution 16, 111–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kumar, S, Stecher, G and Tamura, K (2016) MEGA7: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Molecular Biology and Evolution 33, 1870–1874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leach, WE (1814) Crustaceology. Brewster, D(ed), The Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Vol. 7 Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 383–437.Google Scholar
Minh, BQ, Schmidt, HA, Chernomor, O, Schrempf, D, Woodhams, MD, von Haeseler A, and Lanfear, R (2020) IQ-TREE 2: New models and efficient methods for phylogenetic inference in the genomic era. Molecular Biology and Evolution 37, 1530–1534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Müller, HG (1993) The genus Mesanthura Barnard, 1914 from coral reefs in Kenya and Malaysia, with descriptions of three new species (Crustacea: Isopoda: Anthuridae). Mittelungen Aus Dem Zoologischer Museum in Berlin 69, 19–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negoescu, I (1994) Isopoda Anthuridea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands (South-western Pacific Ocean), I. Travaux du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 34, 147–225.Google Scholar
Nunomura, N (1977) Marine Isopoda from Amakusa, Kyushu (1). Publications from the Amakusa Marine Biological Laboratory 4, 71–90.Google Scholar
Nunomura, N (1979) Mesanthura miyakoensis, a new anthurid isopod form Miyakojima Island, Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Bulletin of the Toyama Science Museum 1, 31–35.Google Scholar
Nunomura, N (1985) Marine isopod crustaceans in the coast of Toyama Bay. Memoirs of the Natural Science Museum, Tokyo 18, 121–139.Google Scholar
Nunomura, N (1992) Anthuridea (Crustacea: Isopoda) from the Ryukyu Archipelago. Bulletin of the Toyama Science Museum 15, 47–56.Google Scholar
Nunomura, N (2006) Marine isopod crustaceans in the Sagami Sea, Central Japan. Contributions from Toyama Science Museum 318, 7–42.Google Scholar
Nunomura, N (2016) Marine isopod crustaceans collected from Shijiki Bay, western Japan (3) Anthuroidea. Bulletin of the Toyama Science Museum 40, 19–36.Google Scholar
Poore, GCB (2001) Families and genera of Isopoda Anthuridea. Crustacean Issues 13, 63–173.Google Scholar
Riehl, T, Lins, L and Brandt, A (2018) The effects of depth, distance, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge on genetic differentiation of abyssal and hadal isopods (Macrostylidae). Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 148, 74–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, C, Rasband, W and Eliceiri, K (2012) NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis. Nature Methods 9, 671–675.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shiraki, S and Kakui, K (2024) Ontogenetic changes in pigmentation pattern in Mesanthura miyakoensis (Crustacea: Isopoda: Anthuridae). Zoological Science 41, 323–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shiraki, S, Shimomura, M and Kakui, K (2021) A new species of Expanathura (Crustacea: Isopoda: Anthuroidea) from Iriomote Island, Japan, with a note on male polymorphism. Zootaxa 5047, 377–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wägele, JW (1984a) Redescription of K. H. Barnard’s three species of Mesanthura (Crustacea: Isopoda: Anthuridea). Journal of Natural History 18, 389–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wägele, JW (1984b) On a small collection of littoral Crustacea Isopoda Anthuridea (family Anthuridae) from the Far East. Journal of Natural History 18, 739–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar