Review of the fish–parasitic genus Cymothoa Fabricius, 1793 (Isopoda, Cymothoidae, Crustacea) from the southwestern Indian Ocean, including a new species from South Africa
Abstract
The genus Cymothoa Fabricius, 1793 is revised for southwestern Indian Ocean waters. Cymothoa borbonica Schioedte &
Meinert, 1884 and C. eremita Brünnich, 1783 are redescribed. Cymothoa rotundifrons Haller, 1880, from Mauritius lacks
type material and the host is unknown, therefore it is here relegated to nomen dubium. Cymothoa sodwana sp. nov., from
Trachinotus botla (Carangidae), collected from the Kwazulu-Natal coast of South Africa, is described and is distinguished
by the large, ovoid, hunched body with rugose dorsal surfaces; the anterolateral angles of pereonite 1 are narrow and
rounded reaching half the length of the cephalon; the ischium of pereopod 7 has a large protrusion and pereonite 7 which
laterally overlaps the pleon margins, extending posteriorly to the pleotelson