Two new species of Asellota (Crustacea, Isopoda) from coral reefs on Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan

Scientists have identified two new species of Asellota (Crustacea, Isopoda) from the coral reefs of Iriomote Island, part of Japan's Ryukyu Archipelago. Pleurocope iriomotensis and Prethura tuberculata represent significant discoveries: the first records of Pleurocope in the Pacific and Prethura along the Asian Pacific coast. These species exhibit unique morphological traits—such as lateral spine-like processes on pereonite 4 and coxal plates in Pleurocope iriomotensis, and a distinct lateral projection on the protopod of pleopod 2 in Prethura tuberculata—that distinguish them from their congeners. The study, published in ZooKeys, relies on detailed morphological analysis to characterize these newly described taxa.

Shimomura, M., & Naruse, T. (2015). Two new species of Asellota (Crustacea, Isopoda) from coral reefs on Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan. ZooKeys, 520, 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.520.5943