Nerocila serra Schioedte & Meinert 1881
Creators: name: Ravichandran, S.
name: Vigneshwaran, P.
name: Rameshkumar, G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Isopoda
Cymothoidae
Nerocila
Nerocila serra

description: Nerocila serra Schiöedte & Meinert, 1881
(Fig. 8 p–r)
Nerocila Serra Schiöedte & Meinert, 1881: 17, pl. 1 (figs 12–14).
Nerocila serra.— Gerstaecker, 1882: 260.— Stebbing, 1893: 352.— Nobili, 1903: 39.— Nierstrasz, 1915: 74. 1931: 124.— Barnard, 1925: 392. 1936: 163.— Pillai, 1954: 12.— Kensley, 1978: 81, fig. 33e.— Bowman, 1978: 35.— Bowman & Tareen, 1983: 12, fig. 13.— Bruce, 1987b: 406.—Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson, 1988: 597, fig. 6 a–f. — Kazmi, Schotte & Yousuf, 2002: 105, fig. 90.— Trilles, Ravichandran & Rameshkumar 2011: 453.— Saravanakumar, Balasubramanian, Raja & Trilles, 2012: 2529–2531.— Trilles, Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2013: 1273–1286, fig. 2h.— Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran & Trilles, 2014: 940–944, fig. 1h.
Nerocila trivittata.— Trilles, 1979: 254, pl. 1 (fig. 4).
Type and type locality. The syntype, deposited at Naturhistoriska Riskmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden (NRS Is. 4974). The type locality is Bangka Island, Indonesia.
Remarks. Nerocila serra is readily identified by the posterolateral angles of all pereonites produced into points narrow and acute, increasing in length progressively from pereonite 1 to pereonite 7, pereonites 5–7 with broad posteroventral corners. Endopod with a deep notch on medial margin and serrate lateral margin with a row of 15–16 dissimilar teeth. Nerocila serra is most similar to Nerocila arres: other characters are discussed under Remarks for N. arres to which this species is similar.
This species has been considered a junior synonym of N. trivittata Milne Edwards by Trilles (1979). This view has not been supported by Bowman & Tareen (1983) and Bruce (1987c). Bowman & Tareen (1983) described three new species of Nerocila with serrate uropods, and prior records of N. serra and N. trivittata can no longer be accepted as accurate. Despite this species being rarely collected, limited work has been done recently on the morphology and taxonomy of this species. Nerocila pulicatensis was not reported since its original description by Jayadev Babu & Sanjeeva Raj (1984). Possibly related to N. serra, the description provided by the authors precludes for the moment assessment of the status of this species.
Colour. The body has 3 longitudinal dark stripes with coxae 2–7, uropods dark and pale tan in alcohol (Trilles et al. 2013).
Distribution. The previous reliable records are from Australia (Bruce 1987c), the original record by Schiöedte & Meinert (1881), the distribution appears to be Indo–Malaysian. Most recently this species recorded from northern Arabian Sea (Kazmi et al. 2002) southeast coast of India (Trilles et al. 2013; Rameshkumar et al. 2014).
Host. Nerocila serra record from Hexanematichthys sagor (Hamilton, 1822) and Arius maculatus (Ariidae) (Barnard 1936; Trilles et al. 2013; Rameshkumar et al. 2014). This species also record from sea snakes Hydrophis obscurus Daudin, 1803 and Enhydrina schistosa (Daudin, 1803) (Reptilia: Elapidae) (Barnard 1936; Saravanakumar et al. 2012).
description: Published as part of Ravichandran, S., Vigneshwaran, P. & Rameshkumar, G., 2019, A taxonomic review of the fish parasitic isopod family Cymothoidae Leach, 1818 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Cymothooidea) of India, pp. 1-99 in Zootaxa 4622 (1) on page 60, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4622.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3379899