Vol. 48 No. 6, 2009

Records of Caligus (Crustacea: Copepoda: Caligidae) from Marine Fish Cultured in Floating Cages in Malaysia with a Redescription of the Male of Caligus longipedis Bassett-Smith, 1898

B. A. Venmathi Maran^1,*, Leong Tak Seng², Susumu Ohtsuka¹, and Kazuya Nagasawa³

¹Takehara Marine Science Station, Setouchi Field Science Centre, 5-8-1 Minato-machi, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Takehara 725-0024 Hiroshima, Japan
²LTC Consultancy, No. 3 Cangkat Minden, Lorong 13, 11700 Gelugor, Pulau Penang, Malaysia
³Department of Bioresource Science, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, HigashiHiroshima 738-8528, Japan

B. A. Venmathi Maran, Leong Tak Seng, Susumu Ohtsuka, and Kazuya Nagasawa (2009) Five species of the copepod genus Caligus were found on 7 species of marine fish cultured at Penang and the Langkawi Is., Malaysia: C. chiastos Lin and Ho, 2003 from Lutjanus johni (Bloch, 1792); C. epidemicus Hewitt, 1971 from Lates calcarifer (Bloch, 1790) and Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton, 1822); C. longipedis Bassett-Smith, 1898 from Gnathonodon speciosus (Forsskål, 1775); C. punctatus Shiino, 1955 from L. calcarifer; and C. rotundigenitalis Yü, 1933 from Lutjanus erythropterus (Bloch, 1790), E. bleekeri (Vaillant, 1878), E. fuscoguttatus (Forsskål, 1775), and G. speciosus.  Attachment sites of these copepods were the body surface and gill cavities of the fish.  These findings constitute new host and country records for all identified caligids, and this is also the first record of C. chiastos from cultured fish.  The male of C. longipedis is redescribed herein.

Key words: Caligus, Cultured fish, Gill filaments, Malaysia, New hosts.

*Correspondence: E-mail:venmathiba@yahoo.com