Pinnotheres pholadis De Haan, 1835

Pinnotheres pholadis De Haan, 1835 View in CoL

Pinnotheres affinis View in CoL — Morton and Morton 1983: 202; Pregenzer and Morton 1990: 650.

Taxonomy: Shen (1932b: as P. affinis View in CoL ), Sakai (1939).

Type: Syntypes RMNH D 42276 (now only mouthparts extant; Yamaguchi and Baba 1993; Fransen et al. 1997).

Type locality: Japan, locality unspecified.

Distribution: East Asia: coasts of China, Korea and Japan ( Schmitt et al. 1973; Pregenzer and Morton 1990).

Habitat: Intertidal to subtidal; commensal with or parasite of bivalves, host including Chlamys hastata (G. B. Sowerby II, 1842) , Mactra chinensis Philippi, 1846 , M. quadrangularis Reeve, 1854 , M. antiquata Spengler, 1802 , Magallana gigas (Thunberg, 1793) , Marcia japonica (Gmelin, 1791) , Mimachlamys crassicostata (Sowerby II, 1842) , Mytilus edulis Linnaeus, 1758 , Ostrea denselamellosa Lischke, 1869 and Pecten albicans (Schröter, 1802) , on substrates of mud or sand, or attached to rock surfaces ( Shen 1932b; Sakai 1976; Pregenzer and Morton 1990).

Remarks: As noted in Pregenzer and Morton (1990), morphological descriptions under the name “ P. affinis ” differ: one originally described by Bürger (1895) is now as Nepinnotheres affinis ( Manning 1993a; Ahyong and Ng 2007), while that of the same name by Shen (1932b) is P. pholadis De Haan, 1835 instead ( Sakai 1976). The morphology of the local material matches P. pholadis ( Pregenzer and Morton 1990) .

Acknowledgment: Throughout the years of preparation, too long for KJHW to dare admit, mentors and colleagues who have advised and assisted in various ways (fieldwork support, inspiring discussions, and the fun times) are gratefully acknowledged, including Teresa Ma, William Yip; Stefano Cannici, Ardle Chen, Christine Cheng, David Dudgeon, Tommy T. Y. Hui, Stephen Wong, W. T. Yan, Matthew Yip ( HKU); Veronica Lam, Kenneth Leung, Lily Tao, Tak Cheung Wai (the City University of Hong Kong); Chandler Tsang, Ling Ming Tsang ( CUHK); Pei-Chen Tsai, Yao- Feng Tsao and Ming-Shiou Jeng ( Academia Sinica , Taiwan); Skylar Cheung and Jhih-Wei Hsu (National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan); Chao Huang (Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia); and Lee Bee Yan (Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore). Paul Clark kindly facilitated examination of specimens in the NHM, London. Jose C. E. Mendoza ( ZRC) provided much insightful suggestions on various taxonomic puzzles, and Tin- Yam Chan ( NTOU) providing important references, are gratefully acknowledged. We also owe a big favor to three anonymous reviewers for their great effort and patience to go through a MS of substantial length, providing helpful comments all through. KJHW is supported by a scholarship from the National Taiwan University.

Authors’ contributions: KJHW conceived this study and drafted the manuscript, and BKKC provided technical support. PKLN, HTS and BKKC participated in the discussion and modified the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.