Sphaeromopsis Holdich & Jones, 1973

Khalaji-Pirbalouty, Valiallah & Wägele, Johann-Wolfgang, 2009, Two new species of Sphaeromopsis (Crustacea: Isopoda: Sphaeromatidae) from the Persian Gulf, Zootaxa 2305, pp. 33-50 : 34

Genus Sphaeromopsis Holdich & Jones, 1973

Sphaeromopsis Holdich and Jones 1973: 386 .— Holdich & Harrison, 1981: 287.— Schotte & Kensley, 2005: 1275 .

Type species: Sphaeromopsis amathitis Holdich & Jones 1973 ; by monotypy; type locality: Watamu Marine Park, Kenya.

Diagnosis. Diagnoses to the genus are to be found in Holdich & Jones (1973) and Schotte & Kensley (2005).

Remarks. Diagnoses of this genus were provided by Holdich & Jones (1973) and later by Holdich & Harrison (1987), and Schotte & Kensley (2005). In contrast to the generic diagnosis given by these authors and based on examination of several species, we found that the sutures of the coxal plate are not visible in some species (e.g., Sphaeromopsis sei Storey, 2002 , S. mourei Loyola e Silva, 1960, and S. persikolpos sp. nov). We also found that pleonal sutures vary in morphology and number; thus for example, in S. sulcifera Schotte & Kensley, 2005 , the sutures are not clearly visible, whereas in S. persikolpos sp. nov., there is a single suture on either side of the posterior margin of the pleon. Although the pereon and pleon of most species in the genus do not exhibit any dorsal ornamentation, S. heardi Kensley & Schotte, 1994 has obvious sculpturing on the pleotelson, and S. persikolpos sp. nov. has some foraminate scattered setae on the surface of these sclerites. Moreover, the pleotelson varies in shapes from broadly truncate in S. amathitis Holdich & Jones, 1973 to broadly rounded in S. minutus Javed & Yousuf, 1995 , to elongated with a narrow apex in the Persian Gulf's species S. persikolpos sp. nov.