Hippocampus haema is a new species of crowned seahorse from the northwest Pacific Ocean around Korea and Japan. The poster child for the crowned seahorses is Hippocampus coronatus, recognized by its pronounced and tall head crown or horn.
Once thought to range from Korea to western and southern Japan, it turns out that the seahorses found in Korea and western coast of Japan are actually a different species. Hipocampus haema, the ‘Korean Seahorse’ has no overlapping range with H. coronatus so that’s one way to know which horsey you’re dealing with.
Furthermore the Korean Seahorse has a lower crown than H. coronatus with a pattern of spines that is unique to this species, and also distinguishable from the similar but rare H. sindonis. The Korean seahorse is described by Sang-Yun et. al. in the newest issue of ZooKeys.
