Mothocya, Costa in Hope, 1851

Fujita, Hiroki, Aneesh, Panakkool Thamban, Kawai, Kentaro, Kitamura, Shin-Ichi, Shimomura, Michitaka, Umino, Tetsuya & Ohtsuka, Susumu, 2023, Redescription and molecular characterization of Mothocya parvostis Bruce, 1986 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothoidae) parasitic on Japanese halfbeak, Hyporhamphus sajori (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) (Hemiramphidae) with Mothocya sajori Bruce, 1986 placed into synonymy, Zootaxa 5277 (2), pp. 259-286 : 265

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.