Norileca indica Milne Edwards, 1840

Martin, Melissa B., Tuah, Alia, Muhamad, Juariah H. & Bruce, Niel L., 2022, A review of the family Cymothoidae (Isopoda: Cymothooidea) infesting marine fishes from Malaysian waters, with new host and geographical records, Zootaxa 5222 (1), pp. 1-36 : 20-22

Norileca indica Milne Edwards, 1840

( Fig. 11 A–D )

Livoneca indica Milne Edwards, 1840: 262 .— Bleeker, 1857: 21, 28.— Gerstaecker, 1882: 261.— Schioedte & Meinert,1884: 362–365, pl. 5, figs. 3–6; Richardson, 1910: 24.— Nierstrasz, 1915: 99–100.— Nierstrasz, 1931: 142–143, 145.— Borcea, 1933: 482.— Beumer, Ashburner, Burbury, Jette & Latham, 1982: 33.

Norileca indica .— Bruce, Lew Ton & Poore 2002: 181.— Ghani 2003: 219.— Yu & Li 2003b: 235–237, fig. 10.— Yamauchi, Ohtsuka & Nagasawa 2005: 25–27.— Nagasawa & Petchsupa 2009: 131–133.— Rameshkumar, Ravichandran & Sivasubramanian, 2013a: 99–105.—Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Sivasubramanian & Trilles, 2013c: 42–46.— Argente, Narido, Palla & Celedonio, 2014: 3–8.— Neeraja, Tripathi & Shameem, 2014: 49–56.— Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2015: 33–36.— Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran, Trilles & Subbiah, 2015: 712– 715.— Aneesh, Kappalli, Kottarathil, Gopinathan & Trilles, 2015: 42.— Behera, Ghosh & Pattnaik, 2016: 856–862.— Jithin, Swapna, Kumar, Venu, Helna & Sudha, 2016: 47–53.— Cruz-Lacierda & Nagasawa, 2017: 60–63.—Anand Kumar, Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Nagarajan, Prabakaran & Ramesh, 2017: 3–5, fig 2a.— van der Wal, Smit & Hadfield, 2017: 164–173, figs. 1–7.

Joryma brachysoma .— Ravichandran, Rameshkumar, Mahesh Babu & Kumaravel, 2009: 80–84, fig. 1

Type material. Muséum nationale d’Histoire naturelle, (MNHN-IU-2007-4159; see van der Wal et al. 2017).

Type locality. Indonesia, Sumatra Island (Milne Edwards 1840) .

Type host. Host type unavailable (see van der Wal et al. 2017).

Material examined. 4 ovig. ♀ (range: 17.01 mm TL, mean: 30.04 mm TL; range: 8.52 mm W, mean: 13.58 mm W) ( UMT Crus 01200, 01201, 01198, 01202), 2 mature ♁ (range: 1.35 mm TL, mean: 12.88 mm TL; range: 0.52 mm W, mean: 5.87 mm W) ( UMT Crus01199, 01204), 1 juvenile ♁ (12.05mm TL; 5.10 mm W) ( UMT Crus 01203), Station 55, EEZ, 06º 38’ 09” N; 102º 21’ 95” E, 04 June 2016, attached to the gills of Selar crumenophthalmus , coll. SEAFDEC crew via bottom trawl.

Host. Predominantly Carangidae , less frequently Clupeidae and Leiognathidae : Alepes apercna Grant, 1987 ; Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1816) see Avdeev 1978b; Rokicki 1982; Ghani 2003; Rameshkumar et al. 2015; Kottarathil et al. 2019; Alepes melanoptera (Swainson 1839) (previously known as Atule malam ; see Avdeev 1978b); Selar crumenophthalmus (Bloch, 1793) see Rokicki 1982; Bruce 1990; Nagasawa and Petchsupa 2009; Neeraja et al. 2014; Cruz-Lacierda & Nagasawa 2017; present study; Decapterus russelli (Ŗppell, 1830) ( Ghani, 2003); Decapterus kurroides Bleeker, 1855 ( Cruz-Lacierda & Nagasawa 2017); Herklotsichthys sp. ( Bruce, 1990; Ghani 2003; Yu & Li 2003b); and Deveximentum insidiator (Bloch 1787) (previously known as Secutor insidiator ; see Behera et al. 2016).

Distribution. Western Indo-Pacific to Central Indo Pacific regions. Western Indo-Pacific: Mozambique, Zambezi estuary; Madagascar, Tanjona Vilanandro (previously Cape Saint André) (see Rokicki 1982; Van der Wal et al. 2017); Mayotte Island ( Trilles 1976); Pakistan ( Behera et al. 2016); India ( Rameshkumar et al. 2013b, 2015; Behera et al. 2016). Central Indo Pacific: Thailand ( Nagasawa & Petchsupa 2009; Schioedte & Meinert 1884); Indonesia (Milne Edwards 1840; Trilles 1979); China ( Yu & Li 2003b); Philippines ( Schioedte & Meinert 1884; Trilles 1976; Yamauchi et al. 2005; Cruz-Lacierda & Nagasawa 2017); Australia ( Avdeev 1978b; Bruce 1990).

Remarks. Norileca indica has an asymmetrically twisted body; pleonite 5 about as wide as pleonite 1; pleotelson with similar length-width ratio; uropod length two-thirds pleotelson length ( Van der Wal et al. 2017).

Norileca indica attaches to the gills of its host, attaching to the ventral part of the host’s branchial cavity. The cephalon faces the anterior end of the host, and its ventral side is directed outwards, opposite the branchial operculum ( Bruce 1990; Neeraja et al. 2014; Rameshkumar et al. 2015; Behera et al. 2016). Generally, the mancae, and immature males do not exhibit a strong body twist until the female adult phase, and the position of the body asymmetry depends on the settlement of the cymothoid within the body cavity. The adult will be twisted to the right when it occupies the left branchial cavity and vice versa ( Nagasawa and Petchsupa 2009; Neeraja et al. 2014). Kottarathil et al. (2019) observed that the instances of male–female combination can be as common as 89.17%, similar to the current observation despite the minimal material examined.

Norileca indica has been reported to cause noticeable physical damage to the mucosal membrane of the branchial operculum, which includes atrophy of the gill filaments, an overall loss of gill normalcy, and formation of a deep pit in the gill chamber floor affected by the permanent occupancy of the ovigerous female (Helna et al. 2019).

Kottarathil et al. (2019) reported on the seasonal variations in the prevalence of host–parasite associations between Norileca indica and the Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta along the Malabar Coast of India. The monthly occurrence of the cymothoid, that was monitored for a period of 38 months (July 2012 to July 2014; March 2017 to March 2018), resulted in a significant difference (p <0.001) among seasons. In addition, a positive correlation was also observed 1) between the size of female parasites and their respective host fish (r = 0.40) and 2) between the size of female parasites and their fecundity (r = 0.78). The prevalence, mean intensity, and abundance were 30.70, 1.71 and 0.52%, respectively. In Sarawak Norileca indica was found in the branchial cavity of Carangid malabaricus and Rastrelliger kanagurta with their respective prevalence and mean intensity: Carangid malabaricus 4/24 (16.6% prevalence) and 5/24 (1.25 mean intensity); and Rastrelliger kanagurta 6/45 (13.3% prevalence) and 7/45 (1.16 mean intensity) ( Anand et al. 2017).

We agree with Van der Wal et al. (2017) that Yamauchi et al. (2005) from dolphin fish and Behera et al. (2016) from Nemipterus randalli host association records are both incorrect as Norileca indica is gill-attaching and does not reside in the stomach of dolphin fish and, to date, the species has not been recorded on Nemipterus randalli and that record could refer to another species.

Figures

FIGURE 11. Norileca indica Milne Edwards, 1840. A, dorsal view; B, ventral view, female (31.7 mm), (UMT Crus 01198); C, dorsal view; D, ventral view, male (13.55 mm), (UMT Crus 01199). Scale: 5 mm.