Nerocila longispina Miers, 1880

Ravichandran, S., Vigneshwaran, P. & Rameshkumar, G., 2019, A taxonomic review of the fish parasitic isopod family Cymothoidae Leach, 1818 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothooidea) of India, Zootaxa 4622 (1), pp. 1-99 : 52-53

Nerocila longispina Miers, 1880

( Fig. 8 d–f)

Nerocila longispina Miers, 1880: 468 .— Nierstrasz, 1915: 78.— Nierstrasz, 1931: 125. Ellis, 1981: 124.— Bruce, 1987b: 355, 412, fig. 35a–d.— Trilles, 1994: 92.— Rameshkumar, Trilles & Ravichandran 2011: 82–84, figs 3, 4.— Trilles, Ravichandran & Rameshkumar, 2011: 452.— Trilles, Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2013: 1273–1286, fig. 2d.—Anand Kumar, Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Rethna Priya, Nagarajan & Kwang Leng, 2015: 206–210, fig. 2d.

Type and type locality. Holotype, held at British Museum (Natural History), London ( BMNH 1849 : 86) figured by Bruce , (1987) from Malabar coast, India.

Material examined. 1 ovig. female (20 mm) from Therapon puta , ( CAS / MBRM C- 21); 3 ovig. females (24–26 mm), from Otolithes ruber (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) , Vedaranyam, 08 September 2009, coll. G. Rameshkumar ( CAS / MBRM C-22 – C-24 ) ; 1 ovig. female (22 mm), Nagapattinam, 22 July 2017, from Otolithes ruber , coll. S. Ravichandran ( ZSI / MBRC D1-543 ) , the Southeastern coast of India.

Remarks. Nerocila longispina has not been described and figured by Miers (1880); the lateral view of the coxae of the sixth pereonite was only drawn by the author. Bruce (1987) gave few figures (dorsal view, ventral view, cephalon, pereopod 7 and uropods) without a description of the holotype of this species (BMNH: Holotype 1849: 86. Malabar; presented by I. Ward, according to Ellis 1981).

Nerocila longispina was later diagnosed and redescriped by Rameshkumar et al. (2011) collected on Therapon puta and Otholites ruber from Vedaranyam, Southeastern coasts of India. Nerocila longispina has a body about 2 times as long as wide, widest between pereonites 6–7; cephalon anterior margin narrowly rounded or with a slender medial point; coxae 2–7 produced into successively longer pointed processes, always exceeding posteroventral corners of pereonites and more strongly angled away from the body; pleotelson about 1.2 times wider than long, smoothly rounded; uropod rami extending beyond posterior margin of pleotelson; exopod slightly longer than endopod; endopod with a notch on medial margin and very coarsely serrate lateral margin.

Nerocila longispina belongs to the Emphylia group of species ( Bowman 1978; Bruce 1987b). Until now, it is the single species of that group, other than Nerocila sundaica Bleeker, 1857 , that has the anterior margin of the cephalon narrowly rounded and the basal segments of the antennula inflated and closes set. Nerocila longispina differs from Nerocila sundaica in having the lateral margin of uropod endopod finely serrate, the coxae 5–7 more strongly angled away from the lateral margin of the body, the posterolateral angles of pereonite 7 weakly produced instead backward into a pointed process as in Nerocila sundaica .

Colour. Pale tan with sparsely scattered chromatophores ( Rameshkumar et al. 2011).

Size. Non-ovig. female 20 mm; ovig. females 20–26 mm ( Rameshkumar et al. 2011).

Distribution. Record from Malaysian region ( Miers 1880; Bruce 1987b), Malabar and Java ( Ellis 1981) and the southeastern coast of India ( Rameshkumar et al. 2011).

Host. In most instances, the hosts are unknown from the previous report. Latter Rameshkumar et al. (2011) two hosts are identified: Therapon puta (Therapontidae) and Otolithes ruber (Sciaenidae) .

Figures

FIGURE 8. a–c, Nerocila exocoeti Pillai, 1954, female (25 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-542); d–f, Nerocila longispina Miers, 1880, female (22 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-543); g–i, Nerocila loveni Bovallius, 1887, female (20 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-544); j–l, Nerocila phaiopleura Bleeker, 1857, female (26 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-545); m–o, Nerocila poruvae Rameshkumar et al. 2011, female (24 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-546); p–r, Nerocila serra Schiöedte & Meinert, 1881, female (28 mm), (CAS/MBRM–661).