A new species of Paraseison (Rotifera: Seisonacea) from the coast of California, USA

A new species of Paraseison (Rotifera: Seisonacea: Seisonidae) is described from the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Female and male specimens of the new species were attached inside the carapace of the leptostracan crustacean Nebalia hessleri, collected at 19 m depth in La Jolla Canyon. This recording represents the first properly identified and described species of Seisonacea for the American coasts. It is furthermore the second known species of the genus Paraseison, which until now included the species P. annulatus only, reported for the Mediterranean Sea and European west Atlantic coast. The new species was diagnosed mostly by its species-specific trophi morphology and in particular by the shape of its fulcrum. Paraseison kisfaludyi sp. nov. is the fourth described species of the order Seisonacea, which accommodates also Seison nebaliae and the recently described S. africanus, all of which live attached to species in the leptostracan genus Nebalia. Even though the Seisonacea are placed in a crucial position within the phylum and may constitute the link between rotifers and other platyzoans, this taxon has in many respects been neglected in morphological studies. Herein we provide new information on the group's taxonomy, morphology and distribution, which will be useful for future phylogenetic and zoogeographical studies.