First record of Leodice uschakovi (Wu, Sun & Liu, 2013) (Eunicidae, Polychaete) in Gulf of Mannar, southeast coast of India

Abstract

We record the polychaete species Leodice uschakovi (Wu, Sun & Liu, 2013) for the first time from the two islands of Gulf of Mannar, India. Our find significantly expands the species’ geographic range, as it was previously documented only from waters of Hainan Island, southern China, and El Nido, Philippines. A large number of samples was collected, many more than by previous investigations, from dead corals. We provide detailed morphological data, including some previously overlooked key characters, as well as molecular data and intraspecific characters within the species.

Keywords

• Intraspecific variation
• Musal Tivu
• new record
• po