A New Species of Lagochondria (Crustacea: Copepoda) Parasitic on Callionymid Fish: First Record of Precopulatory Mate Guarding in Fish-Parasitic Cyclopoid Copepods, and of the Occurrence of the Genus in the North Pacific.

ABSTRACT

A new species of the genus Lagochondria of the parasitic cyclopoid family Chondracanthidae is described from the gill cavity of the callionymid Repomucenus virgis (Jordan and Fowler, 1903) collected from off Kii Peninsula, Japan. This is the first record of the occurrence of the genus from the North Pacific, and is only the second species in the genus. The female of the new species is easily distinguished from that of the Australian type species L. nana Ho and Dojiri, 1988 by having a squared trunk lacking paired posterior processes, and by the very short neck. In the male, the new species can be differentiated from the type species by having three inner setae on the caudal ramus, and by the distal segment of the antennule having a setal formula of 4, 3, 7+ ae. An adult female was accompanied by an attached adult male, whereas fourth and fifth copepodid females each carried a fifth and a fourth attached copepodid male, respectively. This is the first record of precopulatory mate guarding in a cyclopoid family parasitic on fish hosts, and of mate guarding between late copepodids of both sexes. The zoogeography of the genus and its relatives with an atrophied tip on the antenna is also discussed.