Upogebia octoceras Nobili 1904

Upogebia octoceras Nobili, 1904 (Fig. 11) Upogebia (Gebiopsis) octoceras Nobili, 1904: 236; Nobili 1906a: 98. Upogebia octoceras. — Ngoc-Ho 1990: 982, fig. 9. Upogebia (Calliadne) hexaceras. — Nobili 1906b: 60 [not U. hexaceras (Ortmann, 1894)]. Upogebia darwinii.— Sakai 2006: 101, figs. 15–17 (part.); (?) Sepahvand et al. 2013: 6; (?) Naderloo & Türkay 2012: 19 [not U. darwinii (Miers, 1884)]. Material examined. Kuwait: 1 male, 3 females, OUMNH. ZC. 2020.01.035, Failaka Island, eastern side, intertidal, in sponges, leg. A. Zhadan et al., 01.xii.2019; 1 male, 1 female, MNHN-IU-2019-3218, Failaka Island, eastern side, intertidal, in hard yellow sponge (piece of host preserved in ethanol), leg. A. Anker et al., 12.ii.2020 [fcn FA-008]. General distribution. Indo-West Pacific, ranging from East Africa, Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf to Thailand, Indonesia and Australia (Ngoc-Ho 1990; Sakai 2006; Sepahvand et al. 2013). Ecology. Lower intertidal and shallow subtidal; associated with sponges, including a “hard-on-touch” yellow sponge, which is fairly common on lower rocky intertidal shores of Failaka Island in Kuwait (Fig. 12D). Remarks. Ngoc-Ho (1990) revised a small group of species allied to U. darwinii (Miers, 1884), recognising U. hexaceras (Ortmann, 1894) and U. octoceras as two species distinct from U. darwinii. However, Sakai (1993, 2006) considered both U. hexaceras and U. octoceras as junior synonyms of U. darwinii, providing a lengthy discussion on the invalid status of these two taxa in his second study. Ngoc-Ho (2008) did not agree with Sakai’s (2006) opinion and treated U. hexaceras as a valid species, without commenting specificially on the status of U. octoceras. All subsequent records of a sponge-dwelling species from the U. darwinii species complex from the Arabian Gulf were listed under U. darwinii (e.g. Naderloo & Türkay 2012; Sepahvand et al. 2013). However, a recent reassessment of U. hexaceras by Komai et al. (2020) showed that it is indeed different from U. darwinii. The Kuwaiti ...