The genus Caligus Müller, 1785 (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida): two new species from reef associated fishes in New Caledonia, and some nomenclatural problems resolved
Author
Hayes, Polly
Author
Justine, Jean-Lou
Author
Boxshall, Geoffrey A.
text
Zootaxa
2012
3534
21
39
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.210824
4a3ca8ca-49ff-4de5-99fb-53dca97cd62c
1175-5326
210824
Caligus angustatus
Krøyer, 1863
This species was originally described based on material from “cod and haddock” collected in
Denmark
(
Krøyer, 1863
). The species level catalogue of
Caligus
produced by
Margolis
et al.
(1975)
shows no meaningful mention of this species other than inclusion in lists of species. Northern European caligids are well known and have been intensively sampled. It seems highly unlikely that this species has escaped detection since 1863. It is more likely that its identity has not been recognised because of inadequacies in the original description.
There are only a few candidate species and we consider it likely that
C. angustatus
may be a synonym of
C. gurnardi
Krøyer, 1863
, described in the same publication. The two species share the same segmentation and setation of leg 4, and this leg is unusually long relative to the length of the female genital complex. There are some differences in the proportions of the genital complex and abdomen but
Kabata (1979)
showed these features to be variable in
C. gurnardi
. We tentatively propose to treat
C. angustatus
Krøyer, 1863
as a junior subjective synonym of
C. gurnardi
Krøyer, 1863
.