Edaphologia, No. 102: 23–29, March 30, 2018 23 Redescripiton of Ligidium japonicum Verhoeff, 1918 based on the type material (Crustacea, Isopoda, Ligiidae) Hiroki Yoshino, Kohei Kubota Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Corresponding author: Hiroki Yoshino (
[email protected]) Received: 23 August 2017; Accepted 5 December 2017 Abstract Ligidium japonicum Verhoeff, 1918 is redescribed based on the type specimens in Verhoeff’s collection. The species is redefined on the basis of uropodal endopod that is 1.1 - 1.3 longer than exopod, pleopod 1 exopod with long setae, and pleopod 2 endopod with U-shaped apex, as well as presence of denticles on pleopod 2 endopod inner margin and one beak-shaped dent on outer margin at anterior position than cutout of inner margin. Variation in morphological characters is shown between type material and samples collected from Chiba prefecture. Key words: Japan, morphological variation, taxonomy with the taxonomy of this species. Introduction Recently, we got a chance to examine the syntypes of The genus Ligidium Brandt, 1833 (Crustacea, Isopoda, L. japonicum deposited in the Zoologische Staatssammlung Ligiidae) contains around 50 species, most of which species München (ZSM), Germany, and herein we re-describe the live in very humid terrestrial habitats (Nunomura, 1983; morphological features of L. japonicum using this material. We Klossa-Kilia et al., 2006; Li, 2015, 2017). Six species inhabit also compare morphological characters between syntypes and Japan; L. japonicum Verhoeff, 1918, L. koreanum Flasarova, material collected in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, which belong to 1972, L. paulum Nunomura, 1976; L.