Nerocila phaiopleura Bleeker 1857
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 phaiopleura

description: Nerocila phaiopleura Bleeker, 1857
(Fig. 8 j–l)
Nerocila phaiopleura Bleeker, 1857: 25, pl. 1 (fig. 3). — Monod, 1976: 857.— Trilles, 1979: 253, pl. 1 (fig. 3).
Nerocila phaeopleura — Miers, 1880: 467;— Schiöedte & Meinert, 1881: 13, pl. 1 (figs 6, 7).— Gerstaecker, 1882: 260.— Nierstrasz, 1915: 75, pl. 3 (figs 1, 2); 1918: 113, pl. 9 (figs 6, 7); 1931: 124.— Barnard, 1925: 392.— Chilton, 1926: 180, fig. 3a–b.— Monod, 1934: 12.— Serene, 1937: 69.— Morton, 1974: 143, pl. 1.— Kensley, 1978: 82, fig. 33d, g.
Nerocila (Nerocila) phaeopleura. — Bruce, 1982: 316, figs 1, 4a–c.
Nerocila (Nerocila) phaiopleura Bowman & Tareen, 1983: 5, fig. 5.
Nerocila phaeopleura [sic].— Barnard, 1936: 164, fig. 6 a–c.
Nerocila sp. Monod, 1976: 857, figs 14, 15.— Meenakshisundaram, 1965: 202–204, figs 1, 2.— Seshagiri Rao, 1974: 428.— Ranjitsingh & Padmalatha, 1997: 171, figs 1, 2.— Radhakrishnan & Nair, 1983: 93–115, fig. 10d.
Nerocila phaiopleura.— Bruce, 1987b: 384, figs 18, 19.— Bruce & Harrison-Nelson, 1988: 596. Ravichandran, Ranjith Singh & Veerappan, 2001: 622-623, figs 1, 2.— Kazmi, Schotte & Yousuf, 2002: 103, fig. 84.— Trilles, Ravichandran & Rameshkumar, 2011: 452.— Trilles, Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2013: 1273–1286, fig. 2f. — Bharadhirajan, Murugan, Sakthivel & Selvakumar, 2014: 268–272, fig. 2a–d.—Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran & Trilles, 2014c: 940–944, fig. 1g.— Rameshkumar, Ravichandran & Ramesh, 2014: 124–128, fig. 5.—Ravichandran, Sivasubramanian, Parasuraman, Karthick Rajan & Rameshkumar, 2016a: 1–5, figs 1, 3.
Types and locality. The types are held at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden (RMNH 1322).The locality is Batavia Bay (= Jakarta), Indonesia (Bleeker 1857).
Material examined. 9 ovig. females (23–26 mm), Parangipettai, 3 April 2009, 2 January and 5 June 2010, from Carangoides malabaricus and Leiognathus splendens, coll. G. Rameshkumar (CAS / MBRM 242 –250); 1 ovig. female (26 mm), Pazhaiyar, 28 December 2016, from Rastrelliger kanagurta, coll. S. Ravichandran (ZSI / MBRC D1-545); 2 non-ovig. females (23, 25 mm), Parangipettai June 2010, from C. malabaricus, coll. G. Rameshkumar & S. Ravichandran, (CAS / MBRM 420–421), all collected from the southeastern coast of India.
Remarks. It can be recognized by the large eyes, coxae broad, produced posteriorly slightly beyond their pereonites, lack of posterolateral processes on the pereonites, pleotelson curving smoothly to a distinct point, narrow and straight uropod rami, and the distinctive pereopod morphology. Uropod exopods each with dark stripe continued on lateral parts of pleon and posterior pereonites. It is a widely distributed and variable species.
Two characters readily distinguish this species from the similar N. depressa; the coxae and posterolateral comers of the pleonites are posteriorly directed and are not bent dorsally. This species differs from others in having the uropod endopod with an obliquely truncate apex. However, the other appendages all correspond exactly to those of specimens from Hong Kong (Bruce 1982) and Kuwait (Bowman & Tareen 1983).
Colour. Pale tan with chromatophores along posterior of pereon and pleon segments, and lateral margin of uropod peduncle.
Size. Ovig. females 23–26 mm; non ovig. females 20–25 mm (Bruce 1987b).
Distribution. This species widely distributed from the Indo–Pacific region, In Australia:Proserpine, Queensland, and the Swan River estuary, Western Australia (Bruce 1987b). Bowman & Tareen, 1983 recorded from South Africa and Kuwait to Hong Kong. In India: northern Arabian Sea (Kazmi et al. 2002) southeast coast of India (Barnard 1936; Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson 1988; Veerapan and Ravichandran 2000; Rajkumar et al. 2007; Trilles et al. 2013).
Hosts. Previous records are given by Bowman & Tareen (1983) and hosts are all from the families Engraulidae and Clupeidae. Bruce (1987b) recorded from different host Liza argentea, Cnidoglannus macrocephalus and Engraulis australis. In India: Nerocila phaiopleura records from a different family with different host species are given by Trilles et al. 2011, 2013).
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 58, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4622.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3379899