Nerocila sigani Bowman & Tareen, 1983

Ravichandran, S., Vigneshwaran, P. & Rameshkumar, G., 2019, A taxonomic review of the fish parasitic isopod family Cymothoidae Leach, 1818 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothooidea) of India, Zootaxa 4622 (1), pp. 1-99 : 60-61

Nerocila sigani Bowman & Tareen, 1983

Nerocila sigani Bowman & Tareen, 1983: 12 , fig. 9 .— Bruce, 1987b: 406 —Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson 1988: 597–598.— Trilles 1994: 100.— Kensley 2001: 234.— Kazmi, Schotte & Yousuf, 2002: 104, fig. 89.— Trilles, Ravichandran & Rameshkumar, 2011: 453.— Trilles, Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2013: 1273–1286, figs 2i, 3e–h, 4, 5f–j.—Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Sivasubramanian & Trilles, 2013a: 42, fig. 1i. Dev Roy & Mitra, 2013: 1134–1135, fig. 1.

Type and type locality. The holotype, deposited at National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution ( USNM 190714), from South of Faylaka, Kuwait (Arabian Gulf).

Material examined. 1 ovig. female, (25 mm) (MNHN-IU-2009-1935) and 1 ovig. female, (24 mm) ( CAS / MBRM 655) Mudasalodai, 09 December 2011, from Siganus canaliculatus (Park, 1797) , coll. G. Rameshkumar.

Remarks. Nerocila sigani briefly diagnosed and described by Bowman & Tareen (1983). Above the Indian material most recently carefully treated and redescribed by Trilles et al. (2013). Nerocila sigani has a body about 2.0 times as long as wide, widest between pereonites 5 and 6; cephalon broadly rounded in anteriorly; pereopods without swelling in dactyls; posteroventral corners of all pereonites produced into points; coxae produced into successively longer pointed processes, those of coxae 1–5 subequal to posteroventral processes of pereonites, those of coxae 6 and 7 distinctly longer; pleotelson about 2.3 times wider than long, smoothly rounded, with no trace of the caudomedial lobe; pereopods 1–5 with subequal dactyls spines; exopod of uropod linear, slightly longer than endopod; endopod with a deep notch on medial margin and serrate lateral margin. pereopods 6 and 7 with marginal.

Bowman & Tareen (1983) described from a single specimen of Nerocila sigani , and N. arres were separated by: 1, presence or absence of a caudomedial lobe; 2, presence or absence of dactylus nodules; 3, antennula articles 1 and 2 being distinct or partially fused; 4, uropod exopod linear or curved; 5, deeper uropod serrations in N. arres than in N. sigani . Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson (1988) stated that N. sigani is the senior synonym to N. arres . Trilles et al. (2013) reveal that the synonymy of these two species cannot be maintained (see section on N. arres ).

Distribution. Recorded from the Persian Gulf, Kuwait ( Bowman & Tareen 1983). Recent records are from northern Arabian Sea ( Kazmi et al. 2002) and southeast coast of India (Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson, 1988; Trilles et al. 2013; Rameshkumar et al. 2013a).

Host. Nerocila sigani collected from the family Siganidae : Siganus oramin (as Siganus canaliculatus (Park, 1797)) ( Bowman & Tareen 1983; Kazmi et al. 2002; Trilles et al. 2013; Rameshkumar et al. 2013a) and Carangidae : Parastromateus niger (Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson 1988) .

Figures

FIGURE 9. Nerocila loveni Bovallius, 1887, female (20 mm), (ZSI/MBRC D1-544). a, dorsal view; b, lateral view; c, forns; d, uropod.