Jie Li‡Corresponding author: Jie Li ( 2019329621095@mails.zstu.edu.cn ) © Jie Li. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Li J (2022) Three new species of the antipatharian-inhabiting barnacle, of the genus Conopea (Arthropoda, Thecostraca, Balanomorpha), from the East China Sea and South China Sea, and a way of life for the genus. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e98548 |  |
One new species of Conopea (Say 1822) are described from the East China Sea: Conopea hongqi. This new species was collected from the sea area 1956, the East China Sea, China. trawled in 350-450m. Attached to antipatharians that lives on a muddy, sandy seafloor with a few reefs. It has a shape that is significantly different from other species of the genus Conopea, a pair of lateral plates and corresponding basis protrude to both sides, forming a pair of sharp corners, Of the 20 species of Conopea, only one in the Gulf of Guinea in Africa has a similar structure and is far less developed than that of Conopea hongqi. Conopea hongqi has a way of life that has never been seen before in the genus Conopea, with some Conopea hongqi living in the protein axis of antipatharians rather than attached to it.