Genus Mothocya Costa in Hope, 1851

Mothocya Costa, in Hope, 1851: 48; Monod, 1971: 174; Bruce, 1986: 1092–1095; Trilles, 1994: 197; Hadfield, Sikkel & Smit, 2014: 111; Hadfield, Bruce & Smit, 2015: 148.

Irona Schioedte & Meinert, 1884: 381; Stebbing, 1905: 27; Richardson, 1905: 265; Hale, 1926: 218; Monod, 1971: 174; Kussakin, 1979: 307; Trilles, 1994: 166.

Type species: Mothocya epimerica Costa, in Hope, 1851; by subsequent designation (see Bruce, 1986).

Remarks: Bruce (1986), provided a detailed generic diagnosis and it is further updated by Hadfield et al. (2014). The genus Mothocya can be well separated from all other branchial cymothoid genera by the following combinations of characters: cephalon anterior margin rounded and ventrally folded; body weakly to moderately twisted, dorsum weakly or not vaulted; buccal cone, not anteriorly pointed, not overriding the antennal bases; antennula stout and longer than antenna, maxilliped without oostegital lobe; no gap between pleonites; pereopods without carina; pleopods simple without fleshy folds.