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One survey was done with SCUBA diving in Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island, Northern Vietnam (December 2013) and another one at Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area, Nha Trang city, Central Vietnam and Phu Quoc Marine Protected Area, Kien Giang Province, Southern Vietnam (November 2014). Sixteen species of the genus Loxoconcha and fourteen species of the genus Xestoleberis were found and identified. Eight species of the genus Loxoconcha were identified in group A, three species in group B, two in group C and three unidentified. Meanwhile, twelve species of the genus Xestoleberis were classified in group A and two in group B according to phylogenetic groups. From geographical distribution of the pore groups of the species in two genera Loxoconcha and Xestoleberis showed that the fauna of these genera in Vietnam is close to those of southern part of Japanese Island Arc, i.e., from Amami Island to the Philippines and Australia rather than Japanese Island Arc faunas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a first report of an interstitial ostracod from Southeast Asia. The ostracod species, Paracobanocythere vietnamensis sp. n., was found in the marine interstitial environment of Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam. Thus far, three species of this genus have been described. The morphology of the carapace as well as the appendages of this new species are quite similar to P. hawaiiensis and P. watanabei. However, we found that they could be easily distinguished according to the morphology of the male copulatory organ. Additionally, we estimated the evolutionary distances among these three species based on nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the mitochondrial CO1 gene. Similar morphologies of carapaces and appendages, and relatively small evolutionary distances according to CO1 between P. vietnamensis sp. n. and P. watanabei suggest that these two species are very closely related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]