Short Communication: Serranus cabrilla (Linnaeus, 1758) (Perciformes, Serranidae ) a new host record for Nerocila orbigyni (Guérin-Mèneville, 1832) (Isopoda, Cymothoidae)

Abstract

Cymothoids are among the largest parasites of fishes in the world. These isopods associate with many commercially important fish species and attach themselves to the body or fins of the fishes (Brusca, 1981). The isopods cause significant economic losses to fisheries by killing, stunting, or damaging these fishes (Ravichandran et al., 2009). Cymothoidae is an ectoparasitic family of Isopoda. Cymothoid isopods are ectoparasites of marine, brackish and freshwater teleost fishes (Trilles, 1994; Ferri et al., 2008; Kırkım et al., 2009). The genus Nerocila is one of the nine genera of the family Cymothoidae distributed in the Mediterranean (Trilles, 1968, 1986). To date, three species (N. bivittata, N. maculata, N. orbignyi) belonging to the genus Nerocila have been reported in Turkish coasts. Nerocila orbignyi occurs both in coastal and pelajic waters, as well as in the bottom zone, infesting fishes from the families Pleuronectidae and Soleidae (Rokicki, 1985) and (Mugilidae) as well (Trilles, 1975a, 1975b, 1994; Bruce, 1987; Öktener and Trilles, 2004). However, this species has been reported from several fish species (Trilles, 1975a, 1975b, 1994; Bruce, 1987; Charfi-Cheikhrouha et al., 2000; Öktener and Trilles, 2004; Ramdane et al., 2007; Kayış and Ceylan, 2011).