Caligus brevicaudus Pillai 1963

Caligus brevicaudus Pillai, 1963 (Figs 6A–G) Host: Caranx ignobilis (Forsskål) (Carangidae: Carangiformes) Locality: Off east coast South Africa (Indian Ocean) Material examined: 5♀ + 3♂ Material collected: 36♀ + 16♂ from C. ignobilis Voucher material: 3♀ + 2♂ (SAMC-A099199) from C. ignobilis deposited in the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa. Adult female (Fig. 6A) with short abdomen wider than long; antenna with well-developed posterior process on basal segment; post-antennal process bifid (Fig. 6B); maxillule with dentiform posterior process (mpp) bifid, smaller tine basal to main tine (Fig. 6C); sternal furca tines blunt with marginal flanges (Fig. 6D); leg 1 exopod last segment with basal medial pinnate seta (arrowed) same length as distolateral seta 4, others shorter (Fig. 6E); leg 3 protopod with circular group of truncated denticles (arrowed) (Fig. 6F), first exopodal segment with large recurved distolateral hook (ds), without inner seta (Fig. 6F); leg 4 3-segmented with I, I, III spines (arrowed) respectively (Fig. 6G) (cf. Pillai 1985; Boxshall 2018). Remarks: The total length of this female copepod is about 3.7 mm which agrees with that reported by Pillai (1985) and Özak et al. (2013) and is bigger than the length reported by Boxshall (2018) from Australian waters. This is the first report of C. brevicaudus from south African waters.