reapxdev/zenodo-scraper huggingface dataset:
Bathynomus propinquus Richardson, 1910, a valid species of supergiant deep-sea isopod from the Philippines, with notes on B. wilsoni Ahyong, 2025 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae)
Authors: Ahyong, Shane T., Sidabalok, Conni M., Yang, Chien-Hui, Ng, Peter K. L.
Type: Journal article
Published: 2026-07-23
Keywords: Bathynomus, Cirolanidae, Crustacea, deep-sea, giant isopod, Isopoda, Philippines

<p>The deep-sea isopod <i>Bathynomus propinquus</i> Richardson, 1910, was described based on a single male juvenile from the Verde Island Passage, central-western Philippines, but owing to its immaturity, had long been considered unidentifiable and treated as a nomen dubium. Settling the identity of <i>B. propinquus</i>, however, is important because the name remains available and nomenclaturally precedes all other species of supergiant <i>Bathynomus</i> in the Indo-West Pacific, with its type locality within the reported range of <i>B. jamesi</i> Kou, Chen & Li in Kou et al. 2017, raising the obvious possibility that the two nominal species could be conspecific. Detailed studies of <i>B. jamesi</i> sensu lato in the South China Sea revealed that it comprises two species distinguished by morphology and strong mitochondrial sequence divergence: a northern form (<i>B. jamesi</i> sensu stricto) ranging from Vietnam to off Hainan and the Dongsha Islands, and a southeastern form (here identified as <i>B. propinquus</i>) from the Verde Island Passage, southern Luzon, Philippines. <i>Bathynomus propinquus</i> is here considered a valid species based on re-evaluation of the holotype, additional material, new characters, size-related variation, and molecular data. <i>Bathynomus propinquus</i> belongs to the group of Indo-West Pacific supergiants sharing upturned pleotelson spines, most of which were formerly confused with <i>B. kensleyi</i> Lowry & Dempsey, 2006 from the Coral Sea, herein referred to as the <i>B. kensleyi</i> group. Given the new data on supergiants in the South China Sea, a key to the species of the <i>B. kensleyi</i> group is provided. A new record of <i>B. wilsoni</i> Ahyong, 2025 from the northern Sulu Sea is also reported.</p>