First Report of Notoplax odysseyi (Polyplacophora: Acanthochitonidae) from South Korea

초록

The genus Notoplax is characterized by a fleshy girdle with shiny, hairy needles and a tegmentum of intermediate valves that extend greatly forward with a very narrow jugum. To date, 41 species of Notoplax have been recorded worldwide; however, relatively little is known about this genus in Korea, with only a single species. Notoplax kaasi previously reported. Here, we first report N. odysseyi Sirenko & Saito, 2017, which is the second Notoplax species from South Korea. N. odysseyi is a medium-sized chiton species distinguished from other congeneric species by a highly expanded, thick, hairy girdle, with inter-valve areas that are completely eroded. In addition, detailed microstructures of the shell and radula characters of N. odysseyi were described using scanning electron microscopy, providing valuable taxonomic information for the species identification of N. odysseyi. To confirm the species identification based on morphological data, we also performed a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on partial COI nucleotide sequences (550 bp) of 18 Acanthochitonidae. The resulting maximum-likelihood tree showed that N. odysseyi and N. conica formed a monophyletic group, which clustered with Leptoplax doederleini.

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