A 226-Year-Old Dolphin-Isopod Mystery Solved: Identification of barbugede Pampelfisk, Coryphaena apus Brünnich, 1783

Abstract

The barbugede Pampelfisk, Coryphaena apus Brünnich, 1783, long assumed to be a dolphin, is actually the senior synonym of the Black Pomfret, Parastromateus niger (Bloch, 1795) and the type host of Cymothoa eremita (Brünnich, 1783). Several early works synonomized C. apus with Stromateus paru Bloch, 1786; however, this form was confused with Stromateus (now Peprilus) paru Linnaeus, 1758, at the time and not associated with Stromateus (now Parastromateus) niger. Later, other works synonomized S. paru Bloch with P. niger, but the C. apus synonomy was apparently forgotten. The occurrence and abundance of two isopod parasites, Cymothoa eremita and C. stromei, and a copepod, Lernanthropus koenigii, conclusively demonstrate that Coryphaena apus is P. niger. Two other copepods, Synestius caliginus and Thysanote appendiculata, show S. paru Bloch is P. niger. The original common name of C. apus “bare-bellied pomfret” also identifies P. niger. Coryphaena apus, Cymothoa eremita, S. niger, and S. paru Bloch were all collected at about the same time and place by the same missionaries in southeast India.

Keywords:

• barbugede Pampelfisk
• Coryphaena apus
• Parastromateus niger
• Cymothoa eremita
• Stromateus paru Bloch
• reverse parasitological fish taxonomy

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank William N. Eschmeyer, Department of Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, for information concerning Coryphaena apus and for comments on the manuscript, and Gunnar Thor Gunnarson, Icelandic Medicines Control Agency, Reykjavik, Iceland, for confirming our translation of “barbugede Pampelfisk.”