Members of the parasitic copepod family Pennellidae are highly transformed ecto- or mesoparasites infecting a wide array of marine teleosts. Currently, this family contains more than 20 valid genera. The pennellid genus Cardiodectes Wilson, 1917 is currently known to contain 15 nominal species. Some pennellids exhibit a complex life cycle involving an intermediate host; it is known that planktonic pteropod molluscs are intermediate hosts for Cardiodectes. Pennellid mesoparasites can be detected by the conspicuous female egg-carrying trunk on the host external surface. The copepod cephalothorax is deeply embedded in the host muscle tissue. Members of Cardiodectes have been reported from several teleost families, mainly Myctophidae and Engraulidae. From the parasitological examination of a juvenile individual of a scarid teleost collected in a reef lagoon of Roatan Island, Honduras, Central America, several ovigerous female individuals of a mesoparasitic pennellid copepod were found; these specimens were recognized as representative of an undescribed species of Cardiodectes Wilson, 1917. The new species, C. roatanensis n. sp., differs from its known congeners in several respects, including the presence of neck lobes, paired posterior protuberances of the trunk, trunk shape and proportions, structure of cephalothorax lobes, cephalothorax relative size, and number of legs. The new species from Roatan is the second member of this copepod genus to be reported from the Caribbean region, after C. boxshalli Bellwood, 1981 from off Jamaica (Bellwood 1981). It is also the second report of Cardiodectes on a parrotfish.
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