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Morphological description and molecular characterisation of a new species of Anilocra Leach, 1818 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothoidae) from India.

ABSTRACT: A fish parasitic isopod recently reported from India as Anilocra leptosoma Bleeker, 1857, was re-examined and morphologically compared to five closely related species: A. capensis Leach, 1818, A. clupei Williams and Bunkley-Williams, 1986, A. leptosoma Bleeker, 1857, A. paulsikkeli Welicky and Smit, 2019 and A. pilchardi Bariche and Trilles, 2006. This species was sequenced and compared to other known Anilocra species based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene fragments. Both morphological and molecular data corroborate that the Anilocra species parasitising the clupeid fish Tenualosa toli (Valenciennes, 1847) from India should be recognised as a new species, and we describe Anilocra grandmaae n. sp. based on the holotype and paratype females. The key characters of A. grandmaae n. sp. include the body being less than 4.0 times as long as wide; antennula article 3 anterodistal margin expanded, 1.2-1.4 times as wide as long; pleonite 1 concealed by pereonite 7 and lateral margin posteriorly produced; pereopods 1-4 with three nodules on dactylus; endopod of pleopods 3-5 with a proximomedial lobe and folding; and pleotelson ovate, with lateral margins converging smoothly to a caudomedial point.

SUBMITTER: Aneesh PT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8056129 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundAnilocra capensis Leach, 1818 is the only named species of Anilocra Leach, 1818 from South Africa. Anilocra is a large genus (> 40 species) with high levels of diversity reported from the Caribbean and Indo-West Pacific. Considering it is highly unlikely that all records of Anilocra from South Africa can be of a single species, the aim of this study was to better understand the diversity of Anilocra from this region and continent.MethodsTo redescribe A. capensis, the syntypes of A. capensis and specimens recorded as A. capensis from Africa were borrowed from the Natural History Museum, London, UK, and The iZiko South African Museum, Cape Town. Newly collected fresh samples of A. capensis were collected from off Cape Town, South Africa. Morphological redescriptions of the syntypes, and other museum and fresh material were conducted. Fresh samples were used to characterise molecularly A. capensis using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1).ResultsMorphological analyses demonstrated that apart from A. capensis there are six Anilocra species new to science from Africa: Anilocra ianhudsoni n. sp., Anilocra bunkleywilliamsae n. sp., Anilocra paulsikkeli n. sp., Anilocra jovanasi n. sp., Anilocra angeladaviesae n. sp. and Anilocra hadfieldae n. sp. Of the species under study, specimens of A. capensis appear to demonstrate the most individual variation, which occurs in pleonite width, pleotelson form and uropod length. We determined that African species of Anilocra can be primarily differentiated by the proportional shape and size of the full body in dorsal view and pereonites 1, 6 and 7. Other defining morphological traits include proportional shape and size of the pereopods, and the antenna and antennula peduncles. Lastly, the molecular characterisation of A. capensis is provided and the interspecific divergence with Mediterranean species is smaller than that with Caribbean species.ConclusionsThe results of this study provide a detailed redescription of A. capensis and the first molecular barcode for this organism. Six new species of Anilocra from Africa are described, establishing that the diversity of Anilocra in this region is greater than previously known. With this new understanding of species differences, we can accurately conduct detailed molecular and ecological analyses of Anilocra from Africa with certainty of the organism under study.

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Morphological description and molecular characterisation of a new species of Anilocra Leach, 1818 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothoidae) from India.

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