First record and redescription of Macandrewella cochinensis Gopalakrishnan, 1973 (Copepoda, Scolecitrichidae) from the Red Sea, with notes on swarm formation

By

El-Sherbiny, Mohsen
Al-Aidaroos, Ali M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2013

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

344

Pages

1-15

Subjects

copepods , Macandrewella cochinensis , Red Sea , swarm , Zooplankton

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.344.5519

 

Abstract

During a study of the epipelagic zooplankton carried out near the fringing reef around Sharm El-Sheikh area, in the northern Red Sea, female and male specimens of the poorly known calanoid copepod Macandrewella cochinensis Gopalakrishnan, 1973 were collected. This is the first record of species occurrence in the Red Sea. Macandrewella cochinensis was previously known only from the offshore water of Cochin, south west of India. The Red Sea specimens are described in details herein to allow their comparison with the specimens from the type locality, because original description of M. cochinensis is incomplete and causes some taxonomic confusion. The most important characters that may have been overlooked in the original description are: shape of projections of the female distolateral prosomal borders, details of morphology of the asymmetrical female genital double-somite and presence of leg 5 in female.