Allopodocotyle epinepheli ( Yamaguti 1942 )

Martin, Storm B., Cutmore, Scott C., Ward, Selina & Cribb, Thomas H., 2017, An updated concept and revised composition for Hamacreadium Linton, 1910 (Opecoelidae: Plagioporinae) clarifies a previously obscured pattern of host-specificity among species, Zootaxa 4254 (2), pp. 151-187 : 170

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).