Pelagic Copepods from Kabira Bay, Ishigaki Island, Southwestern Japan, with the Description of a New Species of the Genus Pseudodiaptomus

Abstract

Taxonomy and distribution of the pelagic copepods were investigated in Kabira Bay, Ishigaki Island. From the samples collected by vertical and oblique tows, 13 species of calanoids, eight species of cyclopoids and one species of harpacticoid were identified. A new species, Pseudodiaptomus ishigakiensis, and other little known species are described. Acartia bispinosa, A. fossae and Oithona dissimilis are firstly recorded in Japan. Distribution of the major copepod species shows that the hydrographic condition of the inner part of the bay is appropriate for the maintenance of neritic species, and oceanic species presumably cannot proliferate in the inner part of the bay.