A New Species of Podocerus (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Podoceridae) Associated with the Whale Shark Rhincodon typus

Abstract

A new species of podocerid amphipod, Podocerus jinbe, is named and described. This new species was collected from the gill rakers of the whale shark Rhincodon typus Smith, 1828 from off Yomitan Village, Okinawa Island, Japan. This is the first record of an amphipod associated with the whale shark. Podocerus jinbe sp. nov. is morphologically similar to P. zeylanicus (Walker, 1904), but differs from the latter by its larger body size, shorter peduncular article 1 of antenna 1, longer flagellar article 1 of antenna 1, subrectangular propodus of male gnathopod 1, anteriorly concave basis of male gnathopod 2, narrow merus of female gnathopod 2, greater number of robust setae on rami of uropods 1 and 2, and greater number of long robust setae on the telson apical lobe. Additionally, a partial DNA sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of this species was determined for future studies.