Allopodocotyle epinepheli (Yamaguti 1942), Pritchard, 1966

Synonyms: Podocotyle epinepheli Yamaguti, 1942; Hamacreadium koshari Nagaty & Abdel Aal, 1962 n. syn.; Podocotyle serrani Nagaty & Abdel Aal, 1962 nec Yamaguti 1952 n. syn.

Records. From the brownspotted grouper, Epinephelus chlorostigma (Valenciennes), off Japan by Yamaguti (1942) as P. epinepheli . From Lethrinus mahsena [as “ L. mehsena ”] and an unidentified “ Serranus ” species, “koshar”, in the Red Sea by Nagaty & Abdel Aal (1962a) as H. koshari . Four specimens from an unidentified Serranus species, “koshar”, in the Red Sea by Nagaty & Abdel Aal (1962b) as P. serrani . From the spotted sicklefish, Drepane punctata (Linnaeus) ( Perciformes: Drepaneidae), in the Gulf of Tonkin by Mamaev (1970) as P. epinepheli . From the longtooth grouper, Epinephelus bruneus Bloch [as E. moara (Temminck & Schlegel)], off Japan by Machida et al. (1970) as P. epinepheli . From the longfin trevally, Carangoides armatus (Rüppell) (Carangidae) [as Caranx armatus (Rüppell)], in the Gulf of Mannar by Parukhin (1976) as P. epinepheli . From the longfin rockcod, Epinephelus quoyanus (Valenciennes), on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia by Bray & Cribb (1989) and Lester & Sewell (1989). From the blacktip rockcod, Epinephelus fasciatus (Forsskål), and E. quoyanus on the Great Barrier Reef by Rigby et al. (1997). From the purple rockcod, Epinephelus cyanopodus (Richardson), E. fasciatus and the honeycomb rockcod, Epinephelus merra (Bloch), off New Caledonia by Bray & Justine (2007).

Remarks. Nagaty & Abdel Aal (1962a) provided two illustrations for H. koshari, presumably one from each recorded host. Pritchard (1966a) suggested that two distinct species were represented, one similar to A. epinepheli and the other similar to Podocotyle bongosi Nagaty & Abdel Aal, 1962, then in Apopodocotyle Pritchard, 1966 . The illustrations of Nagaty & Abdel Aal (1962a) are of poor resolution, but are indeed inconsistent with oneanother and neither represents a species of Hamacreadium; in each the vitelline follicles are restricted to the hindbody. The two illustrations differ in the length of the cirrus-sac, in the first, presumably of the holotype, it extends into the hindbody. This specimen is almost certainly identical to P. serrani as described by Nagaty & Abdel Aal (1962b) from the same host. That description is of better quality and clearly represents a species of Allopodocotyle . Although it is considered to represent A. epinepheli here, as suggested by Pritchard (1966a), it also closely resembles Allopodocotyle serrani (Yamaguti, 1952) Pritchard, 1966, which was also described from an unidentified “ Serranus ” species.

Bray & Cribb (1989) suggested that H. koshari might represent Podocotyle mehsena (Nagaty, 1941) n. comb. (see below) but in that species the genital pore is distinctly inter-caecal and the cirrus-sac is entirely anterior to the ventral sucker. Finally, the second specimen of H. koshari represents a species of Podocotyle, probably P. bongosi, as suggested by Pritchard (1966a).