Fourteen New Species of Dicyemids (Phylum: Dicyemida) from Seven Species of Decapodiformes (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) in the Kumano Sea, Japan

Abstract

Fourteen new species of dicyemid mesozoans are described from six sepiid species (Mollusca: Cephalopoda: Sepiida) and a sepiolid species (Mollusca: Cephalopoda: Sepiolida) collected in the Kumano Sea, off the Kii Peninsula, Pacific coast of Honshu, Japan: Dicyema bacterocephalum sp. nov., Dicyema gozaense sp. nov., and Pseudicyema anemophilum sp. nov. from Sepia kobiensis Hoyle, 1855; Dicyema conocephalum sp. nov. and Dicyema tenuipoeceum sp. nov. from Sepia tenuipes Sasaki, 1929; Dicyema hyalocephalum sp. nov. from Austrorossia bipapillata (Sasaki, 1920); Dicyema lorigeroeceum sp. nov., Dicyema tympanocephalum sp. nov., and Pseudicyema cuplacephalum sp. nov. from Sepia lorigera Wülker, 1910; Dicyema miense sp. nov. and Pseudicyema jinshoae sp. nov. from Sepia subtenuipes Okutani and Horikawa, 1987; Pseudicyema daioense sp. nov. from Sepia aureomaculata Okutani and Horikawa, 1987; Dicyema shimaense sp. nov. and Pseudicyema physocaudatum sp. nov. from Sepia madokai Adam, 1939. The dicyemid fauna and their cooccurrence patterns of species are briefly discussed in relation to possible interaction of chromidinid ciliates.