Hong, J.-S.; Lee, C.-L.; Sato, M. (2017). A review of three species of Hesperonoe (Annelida: Polynoidae) in Asia, with descriptions of two new species and a new record of Hesperonoe hwanghaiensis from Korea. Journal of Natural History. 51(47-48): 2925-2945.
A review of three species of Hesperonoe (Annelida: Polynoidae) in Asia, with descriptions of two new species and a new record of Hesperonoe hwanghaiensis from Korea
A taxonomic review of three Asian species of Hesperonoe (Annelida: Polynoidae) is presented. Hesperonoe hwanghaiensis Uschakov and Wu, 1959 (type locality: Qingdao, China) is redescribed based on five specimens collected from an intertidal site in the Korean coast of the Yellow Sea, as a new record of this species from Korea, which is the only known habitat outside the type locality. Hesperonoe coreensis sp. nov. is described based on nine specimens collected from two intertidal sites in the Korean coast of the Yellow Sea, including the same site as the habitat of H. hwanghaiensis. Hesperonoe japonensis sp. nov. is described by re-examination of many specimens collected from eight intertidal sites and a subtidal one in Japan, which was previously misidentified as H. hwanghaiensis. The three species are clearly distinguishable from one another by the species-specific morphology of the macrotubercles (or marked ridges) on the surface of elytra. All of the three species seemed to be commensal with the burrowing mud shrimp Upogebia major in intertidal flats, except for an additional probable host of another upogebid shrimp Austinogebia narutensis for H. japonensis sp. nov. in a subtidal habitat. The morphological characteristics and host species of the three Asian species are compared with all of the other five congeners known from the North American Pacific and Arctic Sea.