First record of association of copepods with highly venomous box jellyfish Chironex, with description of new species of Paramacrochiron (Cyclopoida: Macrochironidae).

Abstract

Paramacrochiron chironecicola n. sp. (Copepoda: Cyclopoida: Macrochironidae) is described from the highly venomous box jellyfish Chironex sp. collected from Malampaya Sound, Palawan Island, The Philippines. This is the first record of copepods associated with cubozoan medusae, although other cnidarian groups such scyphozoans, hydrozoans, and anthozoans are common hosts for symbiotic copepods. The infection sites were on the subumbrella, pedalium, and rhopalium, but also rarely on the adradial furrow. The new species is distinguished from other congeners by a combination of the following features: (1) the fifth pedigerous somite dorsally covering the anterior part of the female genital double-somite; (2) the fine structures of the antenna (relative lengths of segments) and maxilliped (positions of terminal elements) of the female; (3) the relatively long outer spines on the exopodal segments of legs 1-4; (4) the relatively long and thick female leg 5 bearing a long protopodal seta which reaches to the distal margin of the exopod; (5) the relatively short caudal ramus in the female; and (6) the plump prosome and short urosome in the male. Since members of the genus typically parasitize scyphozoans, especially rhizostomes, the association of this parasitic copepod on cubozoans may reflect the relatively close phylogenetic relationship between cubozoans and scyphozoans.