FIRST RECORD OF THE GEBIIDEAN GENUS AXIANASSA SCHMITT, 1924 (CRUSTACEA: DECAPODA: GEBIIDEA: AXIANASSIDAE) IN THE WEST PACIFIC, WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES FROM THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

A new species, Axianassa sinica, from the Beibu Gulf (Gulf of Tonkin), northern South China Sea, is described and illustrated. The new species is readily distinguished from A. australis Rodrigues & Shimizu, 1992, by its acute rostrum, merus of pereopod 1 with a tooth distally on lower margin and an elongated telson.

A new sea-star species (Asteroidea : Luidiidae) from the South China Sea

A new sea-star species of family Luidiidae, named Luidia difficilis, from the South China Sea is described in the present paper. The diagnostic characters that distinguish L. difficilis from its closely allied species L. hexactis and L. maculata are listed in Table 1.

Additional pandaloid shrimps from the South China Sea (Crustacea : Decapoda : Caridea), with description of one new species

The present paper reports 22 pandaloid shrimp species from the South China Sea and its adjacent area, including two new records of the South China Sea, 14 new records of the Nanshan Islands, and one new speices. Heterocarpus chani, new species, type localities from the Philippines and Nansha Islands, is distinguished from its allied species, H. gibbosus Bate, 1888, H. tricarinatus Alcock & Anderson, 1894 and H. lepidus De Man, 1917, by the third maxilliped with a short rudimentary exopod.

Deep-sea pontoniines (Decapoda : Palaemonidae) from the philippine "PANGLAO 2005" expedition, with descriptions of four new species

Ten species belonging to three genera of the subfamily Pontoniinae were colleted by the deep-sea expedition "PANGLAO 2005" in the Philippines, including four new species of the genus Periclimenes, i.e., P. boucheti n. sp., P. leptunguis n. sp., P. ngi n. sp., and P. panglaonis sp. nov., and one newly recorded species from the Philippines, Periclimenes laccadivensis. They are reported with color photographs except one species, Plesiopontonia monodi. The possible synonymy of Periclimenes foresti and P. granuloides is discussed.

A new spirofilid ciliate from the yellow sea: Metastrongylidium distichum n gen, n sp (ciliophora, stichotrichia)

The morphology and infraciliature of a new ciliate, Metastrongylidium distichum, isolated from the Yellow Sea, are investigated using live observation and protargol impregnation. Metastrongylidium distichum is about 170 x 40 pm in vivo, clavate to elongate ellipsoidal with bluntly pointed posterior end, and has two macronuclear nodules, six distinctly large buccal and frontal cirri, three dorsal kineties and two each of spiralled ventral and marginal cirral rows. These features indicate a generic allocation in Strongylidium Sterki, 1878. However, the new ciliate has a distinct feature not recognizable in Strongylidiurn, viz., the presence of (three or four) transverse cirri. Thus, we propose a new genus Metastrongylidium for the new species, M distichum nov. gen., n. sp. Metastrongylidium belongs to the family Spirofilidae, where it differs from Mucotrichidium by the lack of postperistomial cirrus and the different frontal and ventral cirral pattern. Metastrongylidium distichum is easily distinguishable from the seemingly similar species Strongylidium californicum Kahl, 1932 by the macronuclear pattern (invariably 2 vs. many nodules). It highly resembles the poorly known species S. contortum (Gelei 1954) Borror, 1972 in the body outline and nuclear pattern, differing in the biotope, the posterior cirral pattern, and the arrangement of right marginal row.