Leptoplax doederleini (Polyplacophora:Acanthochitonidae) from South Korea

Abstract

Acanthochitonidae Pilsbry, 1893 is one of the chiton families characterized by 9 pairs of sutural tufts on a wellexpanded girdle that overgrows plates. It is found in intertidal and subtidal zones worldwide. Of its eight genera, only two have been previously reported in South Korea: Acanthochitona Gray, 1821 and Notoplax H. Adams, 1862. Here we report Leptoplax doederleini (Thiele, 1909) as the first record of the genus Leptoplax in South Korea and describe and compare its morphological features with N. kaasi Hong, Dell’Angelo and Van Belle, 1990. In addition, we provide the partial sequence of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene as a DNA barcode sequence record.