Shallow-water Comatulids (Echinodermata: Crinoidea: Comatulida) of the Ashizuri-Uwakai Sea, Shikoku Island, Southern Japan

Abstract

A faunal investigation of shallow-water (<50 m) comatulids of the Ashizuri-Uwakai Sea, Shikoku Island, southern Japan was performed between mid-2011 and early 2015, using scuba. It revealed that 30 species of seven families are distributed in the area, including two tropical species, Clarkcomanthus mirabilis (Rowe, Hoggett, Birtles, and Vail, 1986) and Clarkcomanthus mirus (Rowe, Hoggett, Birtles, and Vail, 1986) that are recorded in Japanese waters for the first time, as well as two species recently described during the research. Seventy-five percent of the listed species are tropical species, and 70% are shared with the fauna of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of Japan. These results agree with the general feature of the Ashizuri-Uwakai Sea in which the biota is strongly influenced by the Kuroshio Current flowing from the south.

Key Words:feather stars, marine fauna, new records, Kuroshio Current.