Fatemeh Nazari

A survey on the harpacticoid copepods from intertidal zone in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman resulted in discovery of three new species of the family Canuellidae Lang, 1944. This work contributes to the final aim to describe the species of harpacticoid copepods in The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. This is the first contribution dealing with the description of harpacticoid copepods in Iranian coast line. These new species belong to Brianola Monard, 1926; Canuella, T. and A. Scott, 1893 and Scottolana Por, 1967. Among other features, Brianola haliensis n. sp. is unique in the armature of the first leg, number of segments and setation of antennry endopod and exopod. Canuella persica n. sp. can be easily distinguished from congeners by the shape of furcal rami and male genital. Scottolana gomezi n. sp. includes in the longipes-group of Scottolana, by the presence of two post genital somites in the female and three in the male. Scottolana gomezi n. sp. is closely related to S. geei Mu and Huys (2004), recorded from the Bohai Sea, China. Among other features, it is differentiated from S. geei Mu and Huys (2004) in eight- segmented antennary exopod, setation of mouth parts and shape of furcal rami.