Review of Pennella Oken, 1816 (Copepoda: Pennellidae) with a description of Pennella benzi sp. nov., a parasite of Escolar, Lepidocybium flavobrunneum (Pisces) in the northwest Atlantic Ocean
Author
Hogans, W. E.
text
Zootaxa
2017
4244
1
1
38
journal article
36256
10.11646/zootaxa.4244.1.1
05f1a37b-29f3-4bca-a735-178a3373bb8a
1175-5326
400400
781D71C8-4632-4D1B-8D82-F77CA1146029
Pennella diodontis
Oken, 1816
(
Fig. 7
)
Synonyms.
Pennella cervicornis
Heegaard, 1943
,
P. plumosa
(
Dekay, 1844
)
Type
host and locality.
Diodon sexmaculatus
,
Philippines
.
FIGURE 7.
Pennella diodontis
, a. entire parasite; b. cephalothorax, dorsal; c. same, ventral; d. first and second antenna, dorsal; e. second and third swimming legs (redrawn from Kirtisinghe, 1935). Scale bars: a = 2.0 mm; b, c = 0.2 mm; d, e = 0.02 mm.
Morphology.
Size:
24–28 mm
. Papillae: partial coverage, clavate and club-like, consistent in size and shape, not found in organized groups. Holdfasts: two only, short. First antenna with three segments, second with two segments. Plumes: simple, single.
Remarks.
A valid species. Original description from porcupine fish,
Diodon sexmaculatus
(=
D. holacanthus
)
(
Oken 1816
); redescription from the same host species,
Ceylon
(
Kirtisinghe 1932;
Fig. 7
). Considered incorrectly as infesting two host genera:
Lophius
and
Diodon
(
Wilson 1917
)
. The history of
P. diodontis
was often confused with that
of
P. sagitta
(
Wilson 1917
)
, however,
P. diodontis
reported from
Lophius
was an error of
Blainville (1822)
based on a poor description and incorrect host identification;
P. diodontis
is in fact a parasite of porcupine fish (
Diodontidae
:
Diodon
) and
P. sagitta
is found so far only on frogfish (Antennaridae:
Histrio
,
possibly
Antennarius
)
).
Lasarus and Sreenivasan (1977)
reported
P. diodontis
from the moorish idol (
Zanculus canascens
(=
Z. cornuta
) in the Indian Ocean. The single habitus figure and brief description are not sufficient to confidently place their specimens (eight) in
P. diodontis
. However, the size of the parasite (
26mm
) and the cephalothoracic papillae (few small at center, and larger branched papillae around the cephalothorax periphery) are reminiscent of the species. As a parasite of
Diodon
,
P. diodontis
is a small species with uniformity in most structures between specimens (
Hogans 1988a
), however, its cephalothoracic papillae may vary slightly in arrangement and number depending on the individual parasite (
Hogans 1988a
;
Heegard 1943
).