Abstract
A new bomolochid copepod species, Acantholochus zairae (Cyclopoida: Bomolochidae), was found on the bullseye puffer fish Sphoeroides annulatus (Jenyns). It is the ninth species belonging to Acatholochus Cressey around the world and the third from the Mexican Pacific. Females of A. zairae sp. n. can be distinguished from Acantholochus spp. mainly by the presence of one seta (instead of two) on the second endopodal segment of leg 2 and by the strong, large claw of the maxilla. Acantholochus zairae sp. n. is attributable either to Acantholochus or to Hamaticolax Ho & Lin since no useful character to distinguish the genus Acantholochus from the genus Hamaticolax was found in the literature. We therefore suggest that species of the genus Acantholochus can only be distinguished from those of the genus Hamaticolax by the absence of the accessory process of the maxillipedal claw. Due to the above, three species of bomolochids hitherto placed in the genus Acantholochus [H. galeichthyos (Luque & Bruno) comb. nov., H. paralabracis (Luque & Bruno) comb. nov. and H. unisagittatus (Tavares & Luque) comb. nov.] are transferred to Hamaticolax and three species hitherto placed in the genus Hamaticolax [A. albidus (Wilson) comb. nov., A. australiensis (Byrnes) comb. nov. and A. venustus (Kabata) comb. nov.] are transferred to Acantholochus. In addition, keys to the females of both genera are provided.
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