Re-description of <i>Metedwardsia akkeshi</i> (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria: Edwardsiidae), Discovered in Akkeshi, Hokkaido, Almost 80 Years after Original Description, with a Revision of the Diagnosis of Genus <i>Metedwardsia</i>

Abstract

The burrowing sea anemone, Metedwardsia akkeshi (Uchida, 1932), which was originally described from Lake Akkeshi, Hokkaido, and is the only species in the genus Metedwardsia Carlgren, 1947, was again collected from Akkeshi in 2015 and 2017, many decades after it was first described, and was also collected from Lake Furen and Lake Onne-to, both in Hokkaido, in the 2010s. Although the original description of M. akkeshi was comprehensive, it lacked information about the cnidom and detailed figures of each body part. Here, we re-describe M. akkeshi after thorough analyses of the newly collected specimens in detail, and based on these topotypic specimens, we also re-diagnose the genus Metedwardsia by providing more detailed information about characteristic morphological features and the cnidom. In addition, we discuss the possible location of "Akkeshi Cove", the site where M. akkeshi was originally collected by Tohru Uchida.