Caligus kirtioides Ho & Lin, 2004

Hayes, Polly, Justine, Jean-Lou & Boxshall, Geoffrey A., 2012, The genus Caligus Müller, 1785 (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida): two new species from reef associated fishes in New Caledonia, and some nomenclatural problems resolved, Zootaxa 3534, pp. 21-39 : 33

Caligus kirtioides Ho & Lin, 2004

Ho & Lin (2001) first described this species as an unnamed Caligus sp. and only later ( Ho & Lin, 2004) named it as a new species. The species was based on material from the carangid, Decapterus kurroides Bleeker, 1855 , taken off Taiwan, and the authors noted its close similarity to Caligus kirtii Prabha & Pillai, 1986 . They distinguished the new species primarily on the basis of minor differences in the relative length of the antennal claw, the size of the postantennal process, and the ornamentation of the outer margin of the endopod of leg 2 ( Ho & Lin, 2001).

We made comparisons between C. kirtioides and C. jawahari Hameed & Adamkutty, 1985 . The latter species was described from Pristipomoides typus Bleeker, 1852 caught at Cochin (Kerala, India) ( Hameed & Adamkutty, 1985). In body shape these two species are very similar to C. berychis Wilson, 1936 , originally described from Beryx decadactylus Cuvier, 1829 ( Wilson, 1936) . All three species share the same unusual and distinctive shape of the female genital complex, with well developed posterolateral lobes and a narrow constriction at the head of the abdomen. All three species also share: a relatively short antennal claw, a sternal furca with widely divergent tines, a leg 4 with two exopodal segments and 4 spines on the distal segment, a similar configuration of distal margin spines 1 to 3 on the exopod of the first leg with a long seta 4 (longer than the segment), and the adult male antenna terminates in a strongly curved but simple claw.

On the basis of published descriptions, C. berychis differs from C. kirtioides and C. jawahari in having a slightly longer claw on the first exopodal segment of leg 3, in having an accessory process on distal spine 1 of leg 1 (a rare state in the genus that needs verification), and in having a slightly better developed posterior process on the female antenna. So we tentatively continue to treat C. berychis as valid, at least until the types have been reexamined, but we consider that there are no significant differences between C. kirtioides and C. jawahari , and propose to treat C. kirtioides Ho & Lin, 2004 as a junior subjective synonym of C. jawahari Hameed & Adamkutty, 1985 . This species utilises both lutjanid and carangid hosts.