Nerocila arres Bowman & Tareen 1983
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 arres

description: Nerocila arres Bowman & Tareen, 1983
(Fig. 3 m–o)
Nerocila arres Bowman & Tareen, 1983: 12–17, figs 10–12.— Trilles, 1994: 82.— Trilles, Rameshkumar & Ravichandran, 2013: 1273–1286, figs 2a, 3a–d, 4, 6a–e.—Rameshkumar, Ravichandran, Sivasubramanian & Trilles, 2013a: 42, fig. 1g.— Rameshkumar, Ramesh, Ravichandran & Trilles, 2014c: 940–944, fig. 1e.
Nerocila priacanthusi Kumari, Rao & Shyamasundari, 1987: 413-417, figs 2–9 [new synonym].
Type and type locality. The holotype, deposited at National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (USNM 189264), from South of Faylaka, Kuwait (Persian Gulf). Kumari et al. (1987) stated that the type material of Nerocila priacanthusi Kumari, Rao & Shyamasundari, 1987 was deposited at the Zoological Survey of India, Indian Museum, Calcutta (without museum register number) from Waltair Coast, Andhra Pradesh, India, from Priacanthus hamrur (Forsskål, 1775), but a recent search failed to locate the type material.
Material examined. 1 ovig. female, (28 mm) (MNHN-IU-2009-1934) and 2 ovig. females (26, 28 mm) (CAS / MBRM 475–476), Nagappatinam, 8 January 2011 and 1 April 2011, from Nemipterus japonicas (Bloch, 1791), coll. G. Rameshkumar.
Remarks. Nerocila arres briefly diagnosed and described by Bowman & Tareen (1983). Above the Indian material most recently carefully treated and redescribed by Trilles et al. (2013). Nerocila arres can be identified by the body about 2.0 times as long as wide, widest between pereonites 6 and 7; cephalon rounded anteriorly, produced into broad shelf anterior to antennula. Posteroventral corners of all pereonites shaped into points and coxae with pointed processes longer, narrower; pleotelson with lateral margins curving to a medial point. Pereopods 1, 2, 4 and 5 with distinct dactylus nodules; posterior margin of pleonites 1 and 2 longer, narrower; uropod serrations on the lateral margin of endopod distinct, with 15–16 dissimilar teeth.
Nerocila arres and N. sigani were described by Bowman & Tareen (1983). They were collected on Nemipterus japonicus, Nemipterus tolu, Epinephelus tauvina, Acanthopagrus latus (N. arres; Holotype from N. japonicus), and Siganus canaliculatus (Park, 1797) (N. sigani; Holotype from S. oramin) from Kuwait (Arabian Gulf). These two species were accepted as valid by Bruce (1987b) and Trilles (1994). However, they were synonymized by Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson (1988). These authors stated that N. sigani is the senior synonym to N. arres but without an examination of specimens from the host fishes recorded by Bowman & Tareen (1983). Indeed, the material examined by Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson was collected on Sciaenia dussumieri, Argyrosoma hololepidotus, Argyrosoma macrocephalus, Argyrosoma nibe, Parastromateus niger, and Pomadasys sp. Most recently Trilles et al. (2013) redescribed and drawings the N. arres and N. sigani does not match the illustrations produced by Bruce & Harrisson-Nelson (1988) for two specimens, one collected from an unknown Malaysian host (USNM 22015) and another found on Argyrosoma nibe from Taiwan (USNM 232017), certainly not belonging to N. arres and N. sigani. Trilles et al. (2013) drawings of N. arres are similar to the holotype illustrations of Bowman & Tareen (1983) and our present non-type material, showing similar characteristics of holotype material.
Nerocila arres is most similar to Nerocila serra; posterolateral angles of all pereonites produced into points increasing in length from 1–7; pleotelson about 1/3 wider than long or as wide as long, smoothly rounded, without caudomedial lobe. Swellings are present on the dactyls of pereopods 1, 2, 4, and 5, but not pereopod 3. Pereopod 3 has a single distal spine on the propus. It differs from N. serra in the uropodal endopod, which is longer and narrower, with a shallower notch on the medial margin, and with smaller serrations on the lateral margin.
Nerocila priacanthusi resembles to N. serra according to Kumari et al. (1987). However, Trilles et al. (2011) stated that Kumari et al ’s. (1987) figures of N. priacanthusi with Bowman & Tareen’s (1983) description of N. arres and considered that the species were the same. After reviewing Kumari et al ’s. (1987) drawings of N. priacanthusi are similar to the holotype illustrations of Bowman & Tareen’s (1983) and our present non-type material (Trilles et al. 2011), showing characteristics of the distinctive sub-ovals shaped body; pereonites 1, 5, 6, and 7 subequal in length, longest; 2–4 shortest and subequal ventrolateral margins of pleonites 1–2 narrow and acute, posteriorly directed, extending to pleonite 5 or slightly beyond pleonite 5 respectively; pleonites 3–5 slightly produced; pleotelson smoothly rounded, without caudomedial lobe; maxilla with five spines on medial lobe and one spine on lateral lobe; maxilliped with oostegial lobe; distal palp segment with one medial and five terminal spines; pereopod 3 with two spines on propodus, pereopod 6 with two spines on merus, three on carpus, and five on propodus, pereopod 7 with one spine on ischium, merus with two rows of five spines, carpus with two rows of three and five spines respectively, propodus with a row of 7 spines and uropod of the endopod with deep notchs on lateral margin confirms this species as a junior synonym of N. arres. We requested a loan of the type material of N. priacanthusi, but the specimen could not be located. Kumari et al ’s. (1987) description and illustrations nonetheless support a synonymy with N. arres.
Colour. Deep red to pale tan, often with 3 distinct longitudinal dark strips.
Size. Ovig. females 18–28 mm; non ovig. females 16–25 mm (Bowman & Tareen 1983; Trilles et al. 2013).
Distripution. Recorded from the Persian Gulf, Kuwait (Bowman & Tareen 1983). Recent records are from the southeast coast of India (Trilles et al. 2013; Rameshkumar et al. 2013 a, 2014c).
Host. Nerocila arres were collected on Acanthopagrus latus (Houttuyn, 1782), Nemipterus peronii (Valenciennes, 1830) (as Nemipterus tolu), Epinephelus tauvina (Forsskål, 1775), Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) (Bowman & Tareen 1983; Trilles et al. 2013; Rameshkumar et al. 2013a) and Priacanthus hamrur (Forsskål, 1775) (Kumari et al. 1987).
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 pages 46-47, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4622.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3379899