Caligus sphyraeni Pillai, 1963

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5360.4.5
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EA1BE6F9-88E2-4357-895E-8ED415206592
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10255122
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03AFA377-FFBD-FFE1-FF7A-950AF01DF821
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Caligus sphyraeni Pillai, 1963
status

In 1963 Pillai described C. sphyraeni from Sphyraena acutipinnis Day, 1876 and S. Jello Cuvier, 1829 caught In Indian waters off Trivandrum ( Pillai, 1963) and the following year Kirtisinghe (1964) described C. clavatus from S. obtusata Cuvier, 1829 caught in waters off Colombo, Sri Lanka. Pillai (1967; 1985) recognised that these Caligus species were synonymous but opted to use C. clavatus Kirtisinghe, 1964 for this taxon because of the similarity between his original name and the name of an unrelated congeneric species, Caligus sphyraenae Nuñes-Ruivo & Fourmanoir, 1956 . This action was followed by Ho & Lin (2004) but both C. sphyraeni and C. clavatus have continued to be listed as valid in the World of Copepods website ( Walter & Boxshall, 2023).

Caligus sphyraeni Pillai, 1963 View in CoL is not strictly a homonym of Nuñes-Ruivo & Fourmanoir’s (1956) species and there is no necessity to suppress Pillai’s name, which has priority. We therefore treat Caligus clavatus Kirtisinghe, 1964 View in CoL as a junior subjective synonym of C. sphyraeni Pillai, 1963 View in CoL . We note that Caligus sphyraenae Nuñes-Ruivo & Fourmanoir, 1956 View in CoL was considered to be a junior synonym of C. infestans Heller, 1865 View in CoL by Cressey & Cressey (1980) and Pillai (1985).