2021 Volume 50 Pages 55-64
A single ovigerous female of cymothoid isopod was collected from the branchial cavity of the African sailfin flyingfish, Parexocoetus mento (Valenciennes, 1847) in Kadogawa Bay, an inlet of the western North Pacific Ocean, southern Japan. Although the isopod specimen differs from Norileca triangulata (Richardson, 1910) in the number of articles of the antennula and the absence of small setae on the propodus of pereopods 1 and 2, it is similar to the species. However, the species was poorly originally described, and there are several differences between the original and subsequent descriptions and the specimen. Thus, this study refrains from identifying the specimen to species and reports it as N. aff. triangulata. This represents the first record of Norileca from Japan. Five species of cymothoid isopods including N. aff. triangulata are now known from Japanese flyingfishes, and a parasite-host list is provided.
