Rediscovery of a Deep-sea Fish Parasite Lophoura cornuta (Copepoda: Sphyriidae) in the Western North Pacific off Hokkaido, Northern Japan

Abstract

Two post-metamorphic adult females of the sphyriid copepod Lophoura cornuta (C. B. Wilson, 1919) were collected from Kaup’s arrowtooth eel Synaphobranchus kaupii Johnson, 1862 (Anguilliformes: Synaphobranchidae) at two deep-sea sites in the western North Pacific off the south coast of Hokkaido, northern Japan. This paper reports on the morphology of L. cornuta based on the adult female specimens collected as the second record of the species from Japan. One of the collection sites is near the type locality of the parasite, and the infected fish were captured at depths of 550 and 620 m on the continental slope. Although the type host of L. cornuta was reported as “Synaphobranchus affinis Günther, 1877”, this fish may be S. kaupii because the latter species predominates among synaphobranchid eels in the western North Pacific off Hokkaido. An identification key to the four nominal species of the genus Lophoura Kӧlliker in Gegenbaur, Kӧlliker, and Müller, 1853 reported from Japan is also provided.

Keywords

• parasitic copepod
• mesoparasite
• deep-sea fish parasite
• key to species
• synaphobranchid eels