Vol. 57, 2018 (update: 2018.05.16; 06.07) Agarna malayi Tiwari 1952 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothoidae) Parasitising the Marine Fish, Tenualosa toli (Clupeidae) from India: Re-description/description of Parasite Life Cycle and Patterns of OccurrencePanakkool Thamban Aneesh1,2, Kappalli Sudha4,*, Ameri Kottarathil Helna3, and Gopinathan Anilkumar5 doi:10.6620/ZS.2018.57-25
1Zoological
Survey of India (ZSI), Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate
Change, Govt. of India, Kolkata-700 053, West Bengal, India. E-mail:
anee3716@gmail.com (Received 7 December 2017; Accepted 19 April
2018; Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan) Panakkool
Thamban Aneesh, Kappalli Sudha, Ameri Kottarathil Helna, and Gopinathan
Anilkumar (2018) This paper re-describes the female stage of Agarna malayi
Tiwari 1952, a protandrically hermaphroditic parasitic cymothoid, and
describes the remaining life cycle stages for the first time. The
re-description (female phase) of A.
malayi
was made based on the type specimens deposited by Tiwari (1952) in the
National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India
(NZC-ZSI) and data obtained from several live specimens collected from
Ayyikkara Fish Landing Centre (11°51'N, 75°22'E, of Malabar Coast,
India) and Marina Beach (13.0500° N, 80.2824° E, Bay of Bengal, India).
General morphology, mouthparts and appendages of the species’ life
cycle stages such as larvae, juveniles, male and transitional stages
are also reported for the first time. We closely observed 80 marine
fish species belonging to 35 different families to identify the
potential host of A. malayi,
and only recovered the parasite from one fish, Tenualosa toli, signifying A. malayi’s
oligoxenous host specificity; the prevalence and intensity of
parasitisation is 17.3 and 1.86 %, respectively. The present paper also
discusses sequential life cycle stages of the species. Key words: Parasitic cymothoid, Lifecycle,
Clupeid fish, Host-parasite interaction, India. *Correspondence: E-mail:
sudhakappalli@cukerala.ac.in; ksudha50@rediffmail.com |