Cymothoa eremita (Brunnich, 1783)

(Fig. 6 A–D)

Cymothoa edwardsii Bleeker, 1857: 21, 33, tab. II, fig. 12.— Miers, 1880: 461.— Gerstaecker, 1901: 261.

Cymothoa stromatei Bleeker, 1857: 21, 33, 35-tab II, fig. 13.— Miers, 1880: 461.— Gerstaecker, 1901: 181.— Lanchester, 1902: 377.— Richardson, 1910: 22.— Hale, 1926: 214, fig. 9h.— Brian & Dartevelle, 1949: 184.— Sachlan, 1952: 41, 50 photo 28. — Pillai, 1954: 15.

Cymothoa eremita .— Schioedte & Meinert, 1884: 259, tab. VII (Cym. XXV), figs. 3–13.— Stebbing, 1893:354; 1910: 102.— Gerstaecker, 1901: 182.— Thielemann, 1910: 39, figs. 37, 38,tab. 4.— Nierstrasz, 1915: 90; 1931: 135, pl. 10, fig. 9.— Monod, 1924: 100; 1933: 195; 1976: 859, figs. 23–25.— Boone, 1935: 215, pl. 63.— Shiino, 1951: 81 figs. 2 (bc).— Avdeev, 1978a: 30; 1982b: 69.— Trilles, 1975: 987, pl. II (12–13); 1979b: 261; 1986: 627, tab. 1; 1994: 139; 2008: 23.— Bowman and Tareen, 1983: 25, fig. 20.— Radhakrishnan & Nair, 1983: 96, 105, 107.— Saito, Itani & Nunomura, 2000: 65.— Shireen, 2000: 21, figs. 1–3.— Kensley, 2001: 232.— Yu & Li, 2003a: 228, fig. 4; 2003b: 267.— Trilles & Bariche, 2006: 228.—Williams & Bunkley-Williams, 2009: 557.— Trilles, Ravichandran & Rameshkumar, 2011: 446. Rameshkumar, Ravichandran & Trilles, 2012: 191.— Hadfield, Bruce & Smit, 2013: 158, figs. 3–5.—Anand Kumar, Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Priya, Nagarajan & Goh, 2015: 208, 209, fig 2b.— Martin, Bruce & Nowak, 2016: 6, 18–24, figs 9–13.—Anand Kumar, Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Nagarajan, Prabakaran & Ramesh, 2017: 57, 58, fig 2g.

Cymothoa limbata Schioedte & Meinert, 1884: 248, tab. VII (Cym. XXV), figs. 1, 2.— Hale, 1926: 214.— Nierstrasz, 1931: 136.— Bruce, Lew Ton & Poore, 2002: 175 [new synonymy].

Cymothoa edwardsi .— Nierstrasz, 1931: 135.

Cymothoa sp. (an. eremita Br ̧nnich, 1783) [sic].— Monod, 1934: 13, pl. 27 (a–b), pl. 30 (b).

Cymothoa erimitae (typographical error?).— Sachlan, 1955: 31.

Cymothoa cinerea Bal & Joshi, 1959: 567, pl. 2, figs. 1–5.— Kensley, 2001: 232.

Cymothoa cinerius .— Joshi & Bal, 1960: 446.

Cymothoa mathieui .— Ellis, 1981: 124.

Cymothoa leaschenaultii [sic].— Kensley, 2001: 232.

Cymothoa epimerica .— Trilles, 2008: 23 (SMF-567).

Type material. Female holotype, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, (ZMUC- CRU-10078). For details of the type material of the synonymised species refer to Hadfield et al. (2013) .

Type locality. Not reported. For further details of other types of localities refer to Hadfield et al. (2013).

Type host. Parastromateus niger (Bloch, 1795) (previously Coryphaena apus).

Material examined. 10 ovig. ♀ (range: 11.96 mm TL, mean: 18.57 mm TL; range: 5.36 mm W, mean: 8.56 mm W) (UMT Crus 01190, 01187, 01184, 01185, 01188,01189, 01182, 01178, 01180, 01177), 3 mature ♁ (range: 3.26 mm TL, mean: 11.92 mm TL; range: 2.98 mm W, 6.04 mm W) (UMT Crus 01176, 01181, 01175), 3 juvenile ♁ (range: 1.65 mm TL, mean: 8.57 mm TL; range: 1.14 mm W, mean: 4.28 mm W) (UMT Crus 01183, 01179, 01186); leg 4, EEZ, from 04º 39’ 20” N; 104º 53’ 09” E to 04º 43’ 50” N; 104º 22’ 09” E, 14 June 2016 from buccal-cavity of Nemipterus tambuloides and Nemipterus furcosus, coll. SEAFDEC crew via bottom trawl of 75m.

Host. Specimens in this study were collected from host species of the family Nemipteridae: Nemipterus tambuloides (Bleeker, 1853) and Nemipterus furcosus (Valenciennes, 1830) .Also known from 11 other host families: Aulopidae, Carangidae, Haemulidae, Lutjanidae, Mugilidae, Psettodidae, Serranidae, Siganidae, Sphyraenidae, Stromateidae, Tetraodontidae (see Hadfield et al. 2013, Martin et al. 2016).

Distribution. Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific regions. For locality details see Trilles (1994, 2008) and Hadfield (2013).

Remarks. Cymothoa eremita is newly here reported from Malaysian waters and identified by subtruncate cephalon; pereonite 1 anterolateral margins extending nearly half of cephalon length; pleon as wide as pereon; uropods not extending to pleotelson posterior margin; bulbous protrusion on pereopod 7 ischium; small horn-like structures on posterolateral margins of pereonite 1 (Hadfield et al. 2013).

Cymothoa eremita is one of the most common and widely reported species of Cymothoa, and interestingly one of the few species to display low host specificity (11 known host families) and wide geographical distribution from the western Indian Ocean (e.g., Mozambique) to the Central Indo-Pacific (e.g., Australia) (see Hadfield et al. 2013; Martin et al. 2016). The first report of this species for Malaysian waters was by Anand et al. (2015, 2017) in Sarawak, where the species was collected from the buccal cavity of Psettodes erumei . Sampling by Anand et al. 2017 resulted in a range of low to fairly high prevalence, with the following results: 15 September 2013: 4/20 (20% prevalence) 5/20 (1.25 mean intensity); 27 October 2013: 1/2 (50% prevalence) 2/2 (1 mean intensity).