Abstract

A taxonomic study on bdelloid rotifers collected from various terrestrial habitats at five different locations in Korea resulted in eight new Korean records and two new species-level taxa, Philodina clypeata  n. sp. and P. verrucosa  n. sp. Among the eight new Korean records, two species- and three subspecies-level taxa are new to Asia as well. These new Korean records also include seven rare species/subspecies-level taxa with poorly known distributions. Habrotrocha gracilis quadridens Schulte and Macrotrachela zickendrahti seda Donner were rediscovered in Korea 64 and 53 years, respectively, after the original descriptions. Habrotrocha ligula aligula Burger, Macrotrachela insulana Donner, M. petulans Milne, M. pinnigera (Murray), and Philodina parvicalcar De Koning have been reported from two to three countries only including their type localities before the present study. In addition, a partial sequence of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (mtCOX1) for P. verrucosa  n. sp. as well as a taxonomic key for the Philodina species recorded from Korea to date are also provided here.