Seven new species of Hatschekia Poche, 1902 (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Hatschekiidae) parasitic on fishes of New Caledonia, and a redescription of H. cadenati Nunes-Ruivo, 1954

Abstract

Members of the genus Hatschekia Poche, 1902 (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Hatschekiidae) are gill parasites found on eight orders of marine actinopterygian fishes: Anguilliformes, Aulopiformes, Beryciformes, Ophidiiformes, Perciformes, Pleuronectiformes, Scorpaeniformes, and Tetraodontiformes. The genus Hatschekia is particularly species rich in tropical and subtropical regions. Eight species of Hatschekia are described from the gill filaments of seven perciform fish hosts (four serranids, two lutjanids and a lethrinid) collected off New Caledonia. Seven of them are newly described: Hatschekia maculatus n. sp. from Epinephelus maculatus (Bloch, 1790), Hatschekia cyanopodus n. sp. from Epinephelus cyanopodus (Richardson, 1846), Hatschekia louti n. sp. from Variola louti (Forsskal, 1775), Hatschekia euanus n. sp. from Gymnocranius euanus (Gunther, 1879), Hatschekia etelisicola a. sp. from Etelis carbunculus (Cuvier, 1828) and Etelis coruscans Valenciennes, 1862, Hatschekia fuscoguttatus n. sp. from Epinephelus fuscoguttatus (Forsskal, 1775), and Hatschekia niger n. sp. from Macolor niger (Forsskal, 1775). The widely distributed species Hatschekia cadenati Nunes-Ruivo, 1954 is redescribed based on material from Epinephelus cyanopodus and was also newly recorded from another five species of Epinephelus Bloch, 1793 and two species of Variola Swainson, 1839 (all members of the serranid subfamily Epinephelinae Bleeker, 1875). Partial sequences of the mitochondrial gene COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) of Hatschekia maculatus n. sp., H cyanopodus n. sp. and H cadenati were obtained and submitted to GenBank.