A New Species of the Genus Melita (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

Abstract A new amphipod crustacean, Melita shiodamari, is described from a high tide rock pool at Shirahama, on the west coast of the Kii Peninsula in Japan. The new species is very different from many Melita species, but resembles M. plumulosa Zeidler, 1989, M. awa Barnard, 1972b and M. matilda Barnard, 1972a from the Southern Hemisphere in the general morphology, and especially in the peculiar morphology of the gnathopods 1 and 2. Tegano seticornis (Bousfield, 1970), Sriha vagabunda (Karaman, 1984) and Fiha schminkei Stock, 1988 are also similar to the new species, and should be transferred to the genus A1elita. All of these species possibly constitute a subgroup, awa-complex, of the genus Melita. Taxonomy of other related genera from the Indo-Pacific, most of which are monotypic, are also considered. The relationship and evolution of these allied species and genera are briefly discussed. Key words: Crustacea, amphipods, Melita, awa-complex, Indo-Pacific, monotypic genera So far, 15 species of the amphipod genus Melita have been reported from Japanese waters (lshimaru, 1994). Amphipods collected from a high tide rock pool at Shirahama on the west coast of the Kii Peninsula were found to belong to a previously undescribed species, which seemed to resemble species of Melita from the Southern Hemisphere more closely than other Japanese species of the genus