Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2013
Two species of Farranula, including a new species, are described from off Jeju Island, Korea (East China Sea). Farranula orbisa sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners F. curta (Farran, 1911) and F. rostrata (Claus, 1863) by a combination of morphological characteristics as follows: in females, (1) eyes located on the frontal part of prosome adhered to each other, (2) second urosomal somite distinctly rounded from the anterior to mid-region in lateral and dorsal view, (3) second urosomal somite ornamented with fine spinules on anteroventral margin; in males, (4) sharply contracted portion of second somite located at two-thirds distance from anterior margin, (5) caudal rami relatively longer compared to width at its base. The new species F. orbisa was erroneously identified as F. rostrata (Claus, 1863) from the East China Sea and as F. curta (Farran, 1911) from the Indian Ocean. The poorly described F. carinata (Giesbrecht, 1891) from the East China Sea is redescribed here based on both sexes of specimens and compared to its morphological variability with specimens from other regions.