Abstract
Two species of Mothocya Costa, in Hope, 1851 are reported from the Virgin Islands. Mothocya xenobranchia Bruce, 1986 was collected from St. John Island from the gills of the Atlantic needlefish, Strongylura marina, which is a new locality record and also confirms a previously uncertain host identity. Mothocya bertlucy sp. n. is described from St. Thomas, St John and Guana Islands, from the gills of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius macclurei, the first record of a blenny as host for any Mothocya. The distinguishing characters of Mothocya bertlucy sp. n. include its small size (< 9 mm) and eyes, the slender pleotelson with a narrowly rounded caudomedial point, extended uropod peduncle and uropods which do not extend past the pleotelson posterior margin, and the narrow pleon which is only slightly overlapped by pereonite 7.
Highlights
Cymothoid isopods are one of the most recognisable groups of isopods to fisherman and anglers (Smit et al 2014)
Isopods were removed from the gills of their infected hosts using forceps, preserved in 70% ethanol, and processed according to techniques described in Hadfield et al (2010, 2011)
Elthusa Schioedte & Meinert, 1884 is similar to Mothocya and can be distinguished by the antennula being shorter than the antenna, maxilliped article 3 is slender with setae, and the pereopod dactyli are relatively short whereas they are long and robust in Mothocya (Bruce 1990)
Summary
Cymothoid isopods are one of the most recognisable groups of isopods to fisherman and anglers (Smit et al 2014). Elthusa Schioedte & Meinert, 1884 is similar to Mothocya and can be distinguished by the antennula being shorter than the antenna (longer in Mothocya), maxilliped article 3 is slender with setae (robust and without setae in Mothocya), and the pereopod dactyli are relatively short whereas they are long and robust in Mothocya (Bruce 1990).
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