A new species of parasitic copepod of the genus Lernaeenicus Lesueur, 1824 (Siphonostomatoida: Pennellidae) from the torpedo scad Megalaspis cordyla (Linnaeus) off Kerala coast of Arabian Sea, India

ABSTRACT

A new species of parasitic copepod of the genus Lernaeenicus Lesueur, 1824 (Siphonostomatoida: Pennellidae) parasitizing the torpedo scad Megalaspis cordyla (Linnaeus) collected from the Arabian Sea, off Kerala coast, India is described and illustrated. The new species, Lernaeenicus megalaspis sp. nov., can be distinguished from its other 32 congeners by the following features: (i) cephalosome 1.5 times longer than broad; (ii) presence of three stout posterior horns on the cephalosome, one median and two lateral, all sub-similar and apically round and blunt; (iii) neck 4.6 times as long as trunk; (iv) abdomen slightly longer than trunk; (v) 4-segmented antennule, and (vi) maxilla, third segment narrow, longer than second, segment 1 slightly broader than others and lateral border with two small spine.

Publication LSID: lsid:http://zoobank.org:pub:8B4CD87A-0821-4F2A-9159-6338BDA85D3B

KEYWORDS:

• Fish parasite
• copepod
• Lernaeenicus
• Pennellidae
• new species
• attachment site
• Arabian Sea

Acknowledgements

The authors thankfully acknowledge University Grants Commission, New Delhi for Dr DS Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship (No. F.4-2/2006 (BSR)/BL/16-17/0401 dated: 28 August 2017) awarded to PTA. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers who critically reviewed the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi through Post-Doctoral Fellowship to PTA.