Occurrence of ectoparasitic isopod Norileca indica (H. Milne Edwards, 1840) on bigeye scad Selar crumenophthalmus (Bloch, 1793) from Great Nicobar Island, India

Rajendra Seepana; Naveen Kumar Nigam; Nashad Musaliyarakam; Sivaperuman Chandrakasan

doi:10.1007/s12639-020-01330-5

Occurrence of ectoparasitic isopod Norileca indica (H. Milne Edwards, 1840) on bigeye scad Selar crumenophthalmus (Bloch, 1793) from Great Nicobar Island, India

J Parasit Dis. 2021 Jun;45(2):306-312. doi: 10.1007/s12639-020-01330-5. Epub 2021 Jan 3.

Authors

Rajendra Seepana¹, Naveen Kumar Nigam¹, Nashad Musaliyarakam^{2

3}, Sivaperuman Chandrakasan¹

Affiliations

¹ Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Haddo, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 744102 India.
² Fishery Survey of India, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 744101 India.
³ Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, Kerala 16 India.

Abstract

Present study records the occurrence and range extension of an ectoparasitic isopod, Norileca indica (H. Milne Edwards, 1840) from the branchial cavity of bigeye scad Selar crumenophthalmus (Bloch, 1793) collected from Pilobah, Great Nicobar Islands. Detailed morphological characteristic of the parasite were presented along with prevalence, mean intensity and abundance. Out of the 130 specimens of S. crumenophthalmus examined, 32 were found to be infested with N. indica. The sizes of the female specimens were in the ranges 14.0 to 20.1 mm and the male specimens were 13-14 mm.

Keywords: Cymothoidae; Fish parasite; Nicobar; Norileca; Range extension.