Afnan N.M., Mohan P.M.* 2025. Two new and an existing species of Tricoma (Nematoda: Desmoscolecidae) from the shallow subtidal zone of South Andaman Island, India // Invert. Zool. Vol.22. No.2: 274–287 [in English].
Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, Port Blair - 744 112, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.
N. Mohammed Afnan: afnan@outlook.in ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1162-0224
P.M. Mohan: pmmtu@yahoo.com ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6194-3772
* Corresponding author
doi: 10.15298/invertzool.22.2.05
ABSTRACT: Two new marine nematode species, Tricoma andamanensis sp.n. and Tricoma longisetosa sp.n., were discovered and described from the subtidal sediments of South Andaman Island, India. A new distributional record of Tricoma similis was also made from India. The new species can be identified by their unique characteristics, including the annular ring number, head shape, tail ring number, spicule shape and length, and somatic setae count. A comparison of congeneric species was also carried out. The detailed morphological features, photos, and illustrations of the new species were provided with the help of a Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) microscope.
KEY WORDS: Andaman Sea, benthic fauna, free-living marine nematodes, meiobenthos, taxonomy.