• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.221-253
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• 2024

Eight new species of the genus Acanthomolgus are described as external associates of octocorallian corals from Korea. As diagnostic features of these new species, A. taenichaetatus n. sp. has ribbon-like distal caudal setae; A. jei n. sp. and A. crassae n. sp. have no inner proximal expansion on the exopodal segment of female leg 5, and the former species has only three setae on the maxillule (vs. four setae in other seven species). Acanthomolgus notialis n. sp. is similar to A. oporinus n. sp. in having a rounded inner proximal expansion on the exopodal segment of female leg 5, but the latter species is distinguished from the former by having longer caudal rami which are about 1.5 times longer than wide, by having a longer inner seta of the maxilla which is three quarters as long as distal lash, and by having unequal setae on the basis of maxilliped. Acanthomolgus dokdoicus n. sp., A. rugosus n. sp. and A. triplus n. sp. appear to be similar to one another in having an ear-like inner proximal expansion on the exopodal segment of female leg 5, but the genital double-somite of the female is distinctly longer than wide in A. rugosus n. sp. (wider than long in other two species), and the third endopodal segment of the antenna is distinctly shorter than the first endopodal segment in A. triplus n. sp. (vice versa in other two species). This is the first record on the genus Acanthomolgus in the temperate West Pacific.