A taxonomic review of the fish parasitic isopod family Cymothoidae Leach, 1818 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothooidea) of India
Author
Ravichandran, S.
Author
Vigneshwaran, P.
Author
Rameshkumar, G.
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-06-21
4622
1
1
99
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4622.1.1
6c263a25-844c-46f3-8954-6fd01361de19
1175-5326
3379899
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4537BB46-452F-4E0C-A444-4AA5E12A64E7
Nerocila sundaica
Bleeker, 1857
(
Fig. 13
a–c)
Restricted synonymy:
Nerocila Sundaica
—
Bowman, 1978: 33–44
, figs 1–7.—
Bruce, 1987b: 406
.—
Bruce, 1988: 598
.—
Trilles, Ravichandran & Rameshkumar 2011: 453
.—
Trilles, Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2013:
1273–1286
, fig. 2j.—Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran & Trilles, 2014c: 940–944, fig.
1i.
—Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran, Trilles & Shobana, 2015: 789–792, figs 1, 2..—
Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran & Trilles, 2016: 968–970
, fig. 3.
Type and type locality
. The
syntype
, held at Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, (
RMNH
n. 12) from the Indian Ocean.
Material examined.
4 ovig. females (
22–26 mm
), Nagappatinam,
8 January 2011
and
1 April 2011
, from
Ilisha melastoma
,
coll. G. Rameshkumar (
CAS
/
MBRM
670–673); 1 ovig. female (
24 mm
), Pazhaiyar,
28 December 2016
, from
Otolithes ruber
, coll. S. Ravichandran (
ZSI
/
MBRC
D1-547); 2 ovig. females (
23, 25 mm
) from
Terapon puta
Cuvier, 1829
, 3 non ovig. females (
23–26 mm
) from
Selaroides leptolepis,
Mandapam
,
18 January 2016
, coll. P. Vigneshwaran (
CAS
/
MBRM
675–677), all collected from the southeastern coast of
India
.
Remarks.
Nerocila sundaica
has a cephalon anterior margin produced narrowly rounded or with an indistinct medial point. The posterolateral corners of pereonite 7 are usually produced backward into a pointed process, reaching as far as the anterior margin of pleonite 5. The exopod of the uropod is tilted inward so that its full width is not seen in dorsal view. Endopod reaching or extending scarcely beyond the posterior margin of pleotelson.
Bowman (1978)
, redescribed in great detail of this species, this is one of the most common Indo–Pacific species of
Nerocila
, but has only been recorded from the northem Indian and Pacific oceans.
Colour.
Ivory white to pale brown in alcohol.
Size.
Ovig. females
20–26 mm
; non ovig. females
20–26 mm
.
Distribution
. This isopod has a wide distribution that includes the South
China
Sea and the Java Sea in the Pacific Ocean (
Bowman 1978
), and the northern Indian Ocean including the Bay of Bengal (
Trilles
et al.
2013
), Arabian Sea (Chidambaram & Menon 1945), and the Persian Gulf (
Bowman 1978
).
Host.
In most instances the hosts are unknown, but Chidambaram & Menon (1945) reported from 6 different species of fishes
Engraulis mystax
(as
Thryssa mystax
),
Otolithus ruber
,
Serranus
sp.,
Pellona indica
,
Therapon jarbua
and
Sardinella fimbriata
(Valenciennes, 1847)
on the west coast of
India
. Most recently
Trilles
et al.
(2013)
recorded from a different host of fishes
Carangoides Malabaricus
,
Ilisha melastoma
,
Otolithes ruber
,
Selaroides leptolepis
,
Terapon puta
and
Opisthopterus tardoore
(Cuvier, 1829)
and
Rameshkumar
et al.
(2016)
recorted from
Pomadasys maculatus
.