Four new records of family Diphyidae (Hydrozoa: Siphonophorae) in Korean waters

Abstract

Siphonophores are unique, gelatinous zooplankton, which many individuals gather and live like one “Superorganism”. The role of individuals in the colony differs greatly depending on their morphological difference, making them more unique. In this study, we report four species belonging to Diphyidae Quoy and Gaimard, 1827 sampled from the South Sea and off Jeju Island, Korea. Two Chelophyes Totton, 1932 (C. appendiculata (Eschscholtz, 1829); C. contorta (Lens and van Riemsdijk, 1908)) and two Eudoxoides Huxley, 1859 (E. mitra (Huxley, 1859); E. spiralis (Bigelow, 1911)) species are described with multi-focus stacked digital images. Our findings update the confirmed order Siphonophorae Eschscholtz, 1829 in Korea to be three suborders, five families, eight genera, and 13 species. In addition, we summarize the synonyms and global distributions of these four newly recorded species in Korean waters.