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Records of the Australian Museum (2014) Vol. 66 
160°W 140 e W 12Q*W 100°W 80°W 60°W 40°W 20°W 
20“E 40°E 60°E 80°E 1Q0°E 120°E 14CTE 160°E 180° 
Figure 1. World map of the distribution of Smenispa irregularis (circles) and Smenispa convexa (stars). 
a neotype from the host Serranus sp., provided detailed 
descriptions of both the female and male, and summarized 
its distribution (Fig. 1). 
Smenispa irregularis (Bleeker, 1857) was recorded from 
Ambon Island (Bleeker, 1857), Singapore and Thailand 
(Schioedte & Meinert, 1884), Jakarta Bay (Trilles, 1979), 
Arafura Sea, Northern Territory (Bruce, 1990) and the 
present material is from Carnarvon, Western Australia (Fig. 
1). Bruce (1990) provided the first modern redescription of 
Smenispa irregularis , albeit with limited material at hand. 
This paper reports on the occurrence of Smenispa 
irregularis from Western Australia on yellowtail seabream 
Acanthopagrus latus (Houttuyn, 1782) with further 
description and illustration of the female and male of the 
species. 
Materials and methods 
Specimens were obtained from the Australian Museum. 
Pencil drawings were made using a camera lucida attached 
to a Leica MZ125 stereomicroscope, scanned and digitally 
illustrated using Adobe Illustrator and WACOM Intuous 
3 drawing pad. Descriptions were prepared in DELTA 
(Descriptive Language for Taxonomy) (Coleman et al ., 
2010) using a general Cymothoidae character set. Host 
nomenclature and distribution was obtained from Fishbase 
(Froese & Pauly, 2013). 
Taxonomy 
Suborder Cymothoida Wagele, 1989 
Superfamily Cymothooidea Leach, 1814 
Lamily Cymothoidae Leach, 1814 
Genus Smenispa Ozdikem, 2009 
Enispa Schioedte & Meinert, 1884: 292.—Bruce, 1990: 282. 
Smenispa Ozdikem, 2009: 611. 
Not Enispa Walker, 1866: 1121 (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). 
Type species. Cymothoa irregularis Bleeker, 1857, by 
monotypy. 
Remarks. The key diagnostic characters of the genus are 
the strongly vaulted body; cephalon embedded in pereonite 
1; antennula shorter than antenna, bases set wide apart; 
pereon and pleon are co-linear with sub-parallel lateral 
margins; pereopods lack carina on basis and the endopods 
of pleopods 3-5 have large folds. Bruce (1990) provided a 
detailed diagnosis for the genus. 
The name Enispa Schioedte & Meinert, 1884 was found 
to be a junior homonym of the valid genus name Enispa 
Walker, 1866 (Lepidoptera) by Ozdikem (2009), who 
proposed the new name Smenispa (derived by adding the 
first two letters of the names Schioedte and Meinert to the 
original name). 
The overall similarity of the general somatic morphology 
to other buccal-attaching genera resulted in the species being 
placed, at times, in the genus Cymothoa Fabricius, 1793, 
and Livoneca Leach, 1818 especially as both genera have 
antennae bases set wide apart. Cymothoa generally have 
narrowly rounded uropod apices and pleonite 1 is narrower 
and less wide than pleonites 2-5. Early accounts (e.g., 
Bleeker, 1857; Haller, 1880) showed only the dorsal view of 
a female, and Schioedte & Meinert (1884) included dorsal 
and ventral views of both the female and male. The genus 
remained effectively ignored until Bruce (1990) redescribed 
the species from the type specimens and gave a revised 
generic description, showing that appendage and brood 
pouch morphology clearly aligned the genus with genera 
such as Anilocra Leach, 1818 and Nerocila Leach, 1818. 
