Mothocya melanosticta ( Schiöedte & Meinert, 1884 )

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 : 38-39

Mothocya melanosticta ( Schiöedte & Meinert, 1884)

( Fig. 3 d–f)

Irona melanosticta Schiöedte & Meinert, 1884: 388 , pl. 17 (figs 3–5).

Irona cypselurus Avdeev, 1978a: 33 , fig. 3.

Mothocya melanosticta . — Bruce, 1986: 1130, figs 23, 24.— Nunomura, 1992: 37; 2005: 43.— Hadfield, Bruce & Smit, 2015: 161.— Vigneshwaran, Ravichandran, Martin & Karthick Rajan, 2018c: 1–9, figs 1–5.

Non Irona melanosticta of all other authors, see Bruce, 1986: 1134, table. 3.

Type and type locality. The lectotype is held at Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA ( MCZ 3714). The type locality is Asia, Pacific Ocean, Japan and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) ( Bruce 1986).

Material Examined. 1 ovig. female (24 mm) ( ZSI / MBRC D1-538), 11 ovig. females (20–29 mm) ( CAS / MBRM C- 151– C- 161); 2 males (13, 15 mm) ( CAS / MBRM C- 163– C- 164), Parangipettai, 07 July 2016, from Exocoetus volitans Linnaeus, 1758 ; 2 ovig. females (26, 28 mm) ( CAS / MBRM C- 165– C- 166), Parangipettai, 18 July 2016, from Sardinella sindensis (Day, 1878) , coll. P. Vigneshwaran. All localities from the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

Remarks. The Indian material Mothocya melanosticta (ZSI/MBRC D1-538) was recently redescribed by Vigneshwaran et al. (2018c). This species can be recognized by the following characters: coxae of pereonites 6 and 7 distinctly rounded; pleon more completely overlapped by pereonite 7; pleonite 1 scarcely visible in dorsal view; pleotelson longer than pleon; uropod peduncle longer rami, lacks strongly convex medial and lateral margins, while the endopod is more acutely narrowed. The morphological feature of Indian specimens M. melanosticta is similar to those provided by Bruce (1986).

Mothocya melanosticta has been the most widely applied name of the genus. The reported occurrence of the species in Japan ( Schiöedte & Meinert 1884; Thielemann 1910) encouraged workers in the belief that the species was widespread, and also unselective in its choice of host. These specimens have been erroneously assigned to M. melanosticta (see Table 3 in Bruce 1986).

Colour. Specimen pale tan in alcohol, chromatophores sparsely spread over the dorsal surface; posterior of pereonites pale giving the faintly banded appearance ( Vigneshwaran et al. 2018c).

Size. Ovig. females 19–28 mm; non ovig. females 17–21 mm; males 14–17 mm ( Bruce 1986; Vigneshwaran et al. 2018c).

Distribution. Mothocya melanosticta is recorded from Japan, Taiwan, Hawaii, Australia and the Red sea ( Avdeev 1978a; Bruce 1986; Nunomura 1992, 2005), and Southeast coast of India ( Vigneshwaran et al. 2018c).

Host. Mothocya melanosticta was collected mainly from Exocoetidae fishes Hirundichthys speculiger (Valenciennes, 1847) (as Cypselurs nigripinnis , C. spilanoreptus, Cypselurs sp.) (see Bruce 1986) and Parexocoetus brachypterus (Richardson, 1846) ( Bruce 1986; Nunomura 1992, 2005). Recently, Vigneshwaran et al. (2018c) reported twelve specimens were taken from Exocoetus volitans Linnaeus, 1758 (Exocoetidae) and one specimen from Sardinella sindensis (Day, 1878) (Clupeidae) and he also suggesting that S. sindensis is not the normal host of M. melanosticta .

Figures

FIGURE 3. a–c, Mothocya collettei Bruce, 1986, female (25 mm), (CAS/MBRM C-149); d–f, Mothocya melanosticta (Schiöedte & Meinert, 1884), female (24 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-538); g–i, Mothocya plagulophora (Haller, 1880), female (28 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-539); j–l, Mothocya renardi (Bleeker, 1857), female (30 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-540); m–o, Nerocila arres Bowman & Tareen, 1983, female (28 mm), (CAS/MBRM 475–476); p–r, Nerocila depressa Milne Edwards, 1840, female (30 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-541).