First Record of Two Species of Parasitic Copepods on Immigrant Pufferfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae) Caught in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Two species of parasitic copepods, representing families Caligidae and Taeniacanthidae, are reported for the first time from two immigrant species of pufferfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae), indigenous for the Indo-pacific region but now established in the eastern Mediterranean. The recorded parasites are: Caligus fugu Yamaguti and Yamasu, 1959 found in the mouth cavity of two immigrant species from the Red Sea: Lagocephalus suezensis Clark et Gohar, 1953 and of Lagocephalus spadiceus (Richardson, 1845) and Taeniacanthus lagocephali Pearse, 1952 found on the gill filaments and inner operculum of L. spadiceus (Richardson,1845). The presently reported finding of Caligus fugu constitutes a new parasite record for L. suezensis and L. spadiceus. Neither of the two copepod species have previously been recorded in the Mediterranean. Both fish hosts were caught in the Mediterranean waters off the Turkish coast.