Published October 30, 2023 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Caligus alalongae Kroyer 1863

  • 1. Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW 7 5 BD, UK
  • 2. Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 20560, USA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

Description

Caligus alalongae Krøyer, 1863

Krøyer (1863) described Caligus alalongae based on material collected from Thynnus alalunga (Bonnaterre, 1788) (as Thynnus alalonga) from an unknown locality. Wilson (1905) considered C. carangis Krøyer, 1863 and C. alalongae to be synonymous and used only the latter name in his key to species. Krøyer’s (1863) description of C. alalongae showed a similar gross morphology to C. carangis in terms of body proportions but the only other illustrations (sternal furca and lunule plus antennule) don’t provide for easy comparison with those he provided for C. carangis. However, one of the reliable diagnostic features for members of the C. confusus -species group is the possession of an elongate distal antennulary segment. This is illustrated by Krøyer (1863) for C. carangis but is not shared by C. alalongae. We therefore consider that C. alalongae is distinct from C. carangis.

Other species have been confused with C. alalongae. Kirtisinghe (1937) described both sexes of a caligid identified as “ C. alalongae ” collected from Alepes dJedeba (Forsskål, 1775) (as Caranx kalla) and two “other Caranx species ” in Sri Lankan waters. As noted by Capart (1953) and Shiino (1959), “ C. alalongae ” of Kirtisinghe (1937) is not conspecific with C. alalongae of Krøyer (1863). Pillai (1961) considered that Kirtisinghe’s (1937) material represented a new species, C. confusus Pillai, 1961 that he had just described based on material collected from Caranx sansun (Forsskål, 1775) in Indian waters. Kirtisinghe (1964) subsequently followed Pillai’s synonymy. Yamaguti (1954) recorded “ C. alalongae ” on Elagatis sp. and Caranx sp. caught off Macassar (Indonesia) but his material is not conspecific with C. alalongae of Krøyer (1863). Yamaguti’s material is also identifiable as C. confusus. Lewis (1967) concurred that “ C. alalongae ” of both Kirtisinghe (1937) and Yamaguti (1954) were conspecific with C. confusus.

Capart (1953) reported “ C. alalongae ” from Mobula rochebrunei (Vaillant, 1879) caught off Gorée in Senegal. This record was based on a single juvenile female for which no description was provided and is considered doubtful. Capart (1959) subsequently reported “ C. alalongae ” from Thunnus obesus caught of the west coast of southern Africa but his illustrations clearly show that his species was identifiable as C. productus Dana, 1852. Capart (1959) placed the material from his 1953 account in the synonymy of “ C. alalongae ”, so we conclude that neither of his records applies to C. alalongae of Krøyer (1863).

None of the other records listed for C. alalongae by Margolis et al. (1975) provides sufficient morphological detail to allow verification. Therefore, the only available description of “typical” C. alalongae is the original description by Krøyer (1863) and this does not provide enough detail to allow a robust identification. We therefore consider C. alalongae Krøyer (1863) to be a species inquirendum.

Notes

Published as part of Boxshall, Geoffrey A. & Bernot, James P., 2023, Resolving taxonomic and nomenclatural problems in the genus Caligus O. F. Müller, 1785 (Copepoda: Caligidae), pp. 545-567 in Zootaxa 5360 (4) on page 563, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5360.4.5, http://zenodo.org/record/10084656

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Caligidae
Genus
Caligus
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Siphonostomatoida
Phylum
Arthropoda
Scientific name authorship
Kroyer
Species
alalongae
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Caligus alalongae Kroyer, 1863 sec. Boxshall & Bernot, 2023

References

  • Kroyer, H. (1863) Bidrag til Kundskab om Snyltekrebsene. Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift, series 3, 2, 75 - 320, pls. 1 - 9.
  • Wilson, C. B. (1905) North American parasitic copepods belonging to the family Caligidae. Part 1. The Caliginae. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 28, 479 - 672, pls. 5 - 29. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 59333
  • Kirtisinghe, P. (1937) Parasitic copepods of fish from Ceylon II. Parasitology, 29, 435 - 452. https: // doi. org / 10.1017 / S 0031182000024975
  • Capart, A. (1953) Quelques Copepodes parasites de poissons marins de la region de Dakar. Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Afrique Noire, 15 (2), 647 - 671, figs. 1 - 10.
  • Shiino, S. M. (1959) On a new species of Caligus (Copepoda Parasitica) from the coast of California. Pacific Science, 13, 351 - 356.
  • Pillai, N. K. (1961) Copepods parasitic on South Indian Fishes. Part I, Caligidae. Bulletin of the Central Research Institute, University of Kerala, Series C, 8, 87 - 130, figs. 1 - 23.
  • Kirtisinghe, P. (1964) A review of the parasitic copepods of fish recorded from Ceylon, with descriptions of additional forms. Bulletin Fisheries Research Station, Department of Fisheries, Ceylon, 17 (1), 45 - 132, figs 1 - 191.
  • Yamaguti, S. (1954) Parasitic Copepoda from fishes of Celebes and Borneo. Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, 3, 375 - 398. https: // doi. org / 10.5134 / 174483
  • Lewis, A. G. (1967) Copepod crustaceans parasitic on teleost fishes of the Hawaiian Islands. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 121 (3574), 1 - 204. https: // doi. org / 10.5479 / si. 00963801.121 - 3574.1
  • Capart, A. (1959) Copepodes parasites. Resultats Scientifiques de l'Expedition Oceanographique Belge dans les Eaux Cotieres Afrricaines de l'Atlantique Sud (1948 - 1949). Institut Royale des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, 3 (5), 59 - 126, figs. 1 - 37.
  • Dana, J. D. (1852) Conspectus crustaceorum, quae in orbis terrarum circumnavigatione, Carolo Wilkes, e classe Reipublicae foederatae duce, lexit et descripsit Jacobus D. Dana. Pars II. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Series 2, 2, 9 - 61.
  • Margolis, L., Kabata, Z. & Parker, R. R. (1975) Catalogue and synopsis of Caligus, a genus of Copepoda (Crustacea) parasitic on fishes. Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 192, 1 - 117.