New data on pacific Microcope (Crustacea, Isopoda, Munnopsidae) with descriptions of two new species and redescription of M. ovata (Birstein, 1970)

The isopod family Munnopsidae Lilljeborg, 1864 was the most diverse and species richest family among all macrobenthic organisms collected during the expedition KuramBio in the abyssal area off the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench (R.V. Sonne, 2012). The munnopsid genus Microcope Malyutina, 2008, represented by two species, was one of the most abundant and frequent isopod genera sampled at all stations. Microcope ovata (Birstein, 1970), the only known Pacific species of Microcope to date, is redescribed based on the new collections, since the types of the species were lost. Descriptions of a new species from the KuramBio samples, Microcope stenopigus sp. nov. and a new species from the opposite side of Pacific Ocean, from the southeastern Australian slope, Microcope justi sp. nov., are presented herein. These findings increase the number of described species of Microcope to five and extended the geography of the genus from the previously known South Atlantic, Antarctic and the northwestern Pacific to the new localities from the southwestern Pacific. The depth range for the genus was also extended from 2014–7370 m, to 427–7370 m. A map of the distribution of the genus Microcope and a key to the described species of Microcope are provided.