A new copepod (Siphonostomatoida: Lernanthropidae) parasitic on a Red Sea immigrant dragonet (Actinopterygii: Callionymidae), with a review of records of parasitic copepods from dragonets.

Abstract

A new species of parasitic copepod of the family Lernanthropidae is described from an immigrant population of the blotchfin dragonet Callionymus filamentosus Valenciennes (family Callionymidae) in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both sexes are described on the basis of material caught in Egyptian waters off the Alexandria coast at Abuqir. The new species shares with Lernanthropus breviculus Kabata, 1979 the possession of a small dorsal plate on the trunk that is so narrow at its origin that it does not overlap the bases of the fourth legs, which are therefore visible in dorsal view. These species differ in the shape of the cephalothorax and in the extent of the dorsal plate, which is shorter in the new species, revealing the caudal rami in dorsal view. Previous records of parasitic copepods utilising callionymids as hosts are reviewed: most belong to the families Pennellidae and Chondracanthidae.