Vol. 58, 2019

(update: 2019.04.25; 05.22)
 

A New Fissiparous Brittle Star, Ophiacantha scissionis sp. nov. (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea, Ophiacanthida), from Jeju Island, Korea

Taekjun Lee¹, Sabine Stöhr², Yeon Jae Bae^3,*, and Sook Shin^4,*

¹Department of Life Sciences, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. E-mail: dagock@hanmail.net
²Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: sabine.stohr@nrm.se
³Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. E-mail: yjbae@korea.ac.kr
⁴Department of Chemistry Life Science, Sahmyook University, Seoul, Korea. *Correspondence: E-mail: shins@syu.ac.kr, yjbae@korea.ac.kr

Received 12 February 2019 / Accepted 19 April 2019
Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan

A new species of Ophiuroidea, Ophiacantha scissionis sp. nov., is described. It was collected from Munseom Island, Jeju-do, South Korea at a depth of 28–36 m, by SCUBA diving. Ophiacantha scissionis has unique and distinct morphological characteristics: small disk, densely covered by small trifid spines, radial shields completely concealed by disk spines, six arms with four arm spines proximally, fissiparous. In addition, this species is clearly distinguished from other species of Ophiacantha by mitochondrial COI. This species is usually hexamerous and reproduces asexually by fissiparity. It is the first report of fissiparous reproduction in the genus Ophiacantha.

Key words: Taxonomy, Phylogeny, Brittle stars, Ophiacanthidae, Mitochondrial COI.

Citation: Lee T, Stöhr S, Bae YJ, Shin S. 2019. A new fissiparous brittle star, Ophiacantha scissionis sp. nov. (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea, Ophiacanthida), from Jeju Island, Korea. Zool Stud 58:8. doi:10.6620/ZS.2019.58-08.