New records of fish parasitic isopods of the gill-attaching genus Mothocya Costa, In hope, 1851 from the Virgin Islands, Caribbean, with description of a new species

Abstract

Two species of Mothocya Costa, in Hope, 1851 are reported from the Virgin Islands. Mothocya xeno­branchia Bruce, 1986 was collected from St. John Island from the gills of the Atlantic needlefish, Strongy­lura marina, which is a new locality record and also confirms a previously uncertain host identity. Motho­cya bertlucy sp. n. is described from St. Thomas, St John and Guana Islands, from the gills of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius macclurei, the first record of a blenny as host for any Mothocya. The distinguishing characters of Mothocya bertlucy sp. n. include its small size (< 9 mm) and eyes, the slender pleotelson with a narrowly rounded caudomedial point, extended uropod peduncle and uropods which do not extend past the pleotelson posterior margin, and the narrow pleon which is only slightly overlapped by pereonite 7.