Peniculisa Explained

Peniculisa is a genus of marine parasitic copepods in the family Pennellidae.

Biology

Organisms from this genus are often found attached to the bodies and fins of fishes in the South Pacific and Indian oceans.^{[1] [2]} Individual fishes have been reported to harbor hundreds of Peniculisa wilsoni parasites.^{[2] [3]} Infection intensity is rarely cited for other Peniculisa species. Peniculisa parasitic infections tend to be limited to tetraodontiform and pomacentrid fishes.^[1]

Taxonomy

There are nine recognized species of Peniculisa:

• Peniculisa bellwoodi Boxshall, 1989 – parasite of Pomacentrus amboinensis^[4]
• Peniculisa bicaudata Shiino, 1956
• Peniculisa crassa Uyeno & Nagasawa, 2010 – parasite of Lactoria fornasini^[1]
• Peniculisa elongata Uyeno & Nagasawa, 2010 – parasite of Ostracion cubicus^[1]
• Peniculisa furcata Krøyer, 1863 – parasite of Paramonacanthus frenatus (Peters, 1855), reported as syn. Paramonacanthus barnardi^[5]
• Peniculisa ohirugi Uyeno & Nagasawa, 2010 – parasite of Pomacentrus nagasakiensis^[1]
• Peniculisa shiinoi Izawa, 1965 – parasite of Canthigaster rivulata^{[6] [7]}
• Peniculisa uchinah Uyeno & Nagasawa, 2010 – parasite of Sufflamen fraenatum, Balistoides conspicillum, Rhinecanthus aculeatus, Sufflamen bursa, Sufflamen chrysopterum and Pervagor melanocephalus^[1]
• Peniculisa wilsoni Radhakrishnan, 1977 – parasite of Diodon hystrix,^[8] Arothron immaculatus, Arothron hispidus and Diodon holocanthus^[3]

Notes and References

1. Daisuke Uyeno . Kazuya Nagasawa . amp . 2010 . Four new species of Peniculisa Wilson, 1917 (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Pennellidae) parasitic on coastal marine fishes in Japanese waters . . 96 . 4 . 689–702 . 20496962 . 40802601 . 10.1645/ge-2395.1. free .
2. A. Chandran . P. Natarajan . amp . 1994 . Heavy infection of Diodon hystrix by the copepod Peniculisa wilsoni (Siphonostomatoida, Pennellidae) . . 45 . 1 . 167–168 . 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1994.tb01295.x.
3. A. Chandran . P. Natarajan . amp . 1991 . Record of new hosts for Peniculisa wilsoni Radhakrishnan, 1977 (Copepoda, Pennellidae) . . 61 . 1 . 107–108 . 10.1163/156854091X00605.
4. Geoffrey A. Boxshall . 1989 . Parasitic copepods of fishes: a new genus of the Hatschekiidae from New Caledonia, and new records of the Pennellidae, Sphyriidae and Lernanthropidae from the South Atlantic and South Pacific . . 13 . 3 . 201–222 . 10.1007/BF00009746. 20948353 .
5. Brian Kensley . John R. Grindley . amp . 1973 . South African parasitic Copepoda . . 62 . 69–130.
6. Kunihiko Izawa . 1997 . The copepodid of Peniculisa shiinoi Izawa, 1965 (Copepoda, Siphonostomatoida, Pennellidae), a single free-swimming larval stage of the species . . 70 . 8 . 911–919 . 10.1163/156854097X00537.
7. Kunihiko Izawa . 1965 . A new parasitic copepod of the genus Peniculisa Wilson from Seto, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan . Report of the Faculty of Fisheries, Prefectural University of Mie . 5 . 365–374.
8. S. Radhakrishnan . 1977 . Description of a new species of Peniculisa including its immature stages . . 52 . 2–3 . 251–255 . 10.1007/BF00036450. 10002464 .