Dissonus similis Kabata, 1966

Soler-Jimenez, Lilia C., Morales-Serna, F. Neptali, Aguirre-Macedo, Ma. Leopoldina, McLaughlin, John P., Jaramillo, Alejandra G., Shaw, Jenny C., James, Anna K., Hechinger, Ryan F., Kuris, Armand M., Lafferty, Kevin D. & Vidal-Martinez, Victor M., 2019, Parasitic copepods (Crustacea, Hexanauplia) on fishes from the lagoon flats of Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific, ZooKeys 833, pp. 85-106 : 85

Dissonus similis Kabata, 1966

Type host.

Tetractenos hamiltoni (Richardson) (as Spheroides hamiltoni ) ( Tetraodontidae ).

Other host and localities.

Tetractenos hamiltoni (as Spheroides hamiltoni ) ( Tetraodontidae ) from Queensland, Australia ( Kabata 1966). Arothron hispidus from Philippines; Arothron meleagris (Anonymous) from Guam; Arothron nigropunctatus (Bloch & Schneider) from Australia, Philippines and New Guinea; and Arothron stellatus (Anonymous) (all Tetraodontidae ) from New Guinea ( Tang and Kalman 2005).

Current host.

Arothron hispidus ( Tetraodontidae ).

Site of infection.

Gills.

Prevalence and mean intensity.

13.3 and 2 ± 0.5 (n = 15).

Specimens deposited.

CHCM No. 574 (voucher) (1 vial, 1 specimen ♀). USNM

No. 1550604 (voucher) (1 vial, 1 specimen ♀).

Remarks.

The family Dissonidae comprises only two genera, Innaprokofevnas Kazatchenko, 2001 with a single species ( I. orientcolae Kazatchenko, 2001) and Dissonus with 12 species ( D. excavatus Boxshall, Lin, Ho, Ohtsuka, Venmathi Maran & Justine, 2008; D. furcatus Kirtisinghe, 1950; D. glaber Kurtz, 1950; D. heronensis Kabata, 1966; D. hoi Tang & Kalman, 2005; D. inaequalis Boxshall, Lin, Ho, Ohtsuka, Venmathi Maran & Justine, 2008; D. kapuri (Ummerkutty, 1976); D. manteri Kabata, 1966; D. nudiventris Kabata, 1965; D. ruvetti Nuñes-Ruivo & Fourmanoir, 1956; D. similis ; and D. spinifer Wilson, 1906).

According to Kabata (1966), D. similis is morphologically closer to D. furcatus . However, D. similis may be separated from D. furcatus and other congeners by the lack of a sternal furca or stylet and the presence of a genital spinulation extending over the anterior half to two thirds of ventral surface of genital complex ( Tang and Kalman 2005, Boxshall et al. 2008). As indicated by Tang and Kalman (2005), D. similis is restricted to the tropical western Pacific and is highly host specific to tetraodontid fishes.