Condyloderes kurilensis sp. nov. (Kinorhyncha: Cyclorhagida)—a new deep water species from the abyssal plain near the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench

Abstract

A new species of centroderid kinorhynchs, Condyloderes kurilensis sp. nov., collected from muddy sediment at the abyssal plain near the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, North-West Pacific, is described and illustrated using light and electron microscopy. Previously, members of the genus Condyloderes were found only in nearly shallow water enviroments—C. multispinosus (North Sea), C. paradoxus (Bengal Bay), C. setoensis (Tanabe Bay, Japan), C. storchi (Argentina coast), and C. megastigma (Korea Strait). The new species is characterized by the presence of lateroventral cuspidate spines only on trunk segment 8 in both sexes, paired ventromedial appendages (tubules) on trunk segments 7 and 8 in females only, and dorsolateral spines on trunk segment 10 in males only. Condyloderes kurilensis sp. nov. constitutes the sixth species of the genus Condyloderes described so far and the only second abyssal species of the Kinorhyncha described from the North-West Pacific. A key to the six species of the genus Condyloderes is proposed.