On the Genus Cybicola Bassett-Smith (1898)

Abstract

Bassett-Smith (1898 a) described a new parasitic copepod from the gills of Cybium guttatum at Bombay and named it Helleria armata, but later (1898 b) altered the name of the genus to Cybicola as the former name happened to be preoccupied. This parasite was not again recorded until the present author (1935) redescribed the female from the gills of Scomberemorus commersoni (Lacepede) (= Cybium commersoni) and at the same time suggested the transference of this species to the genus Pseudocycnus Heller (1865). The reasons for this suggestion were based on a comparison of the female of Bassett-Smith's species with the females of the two known species of Pseudocycnus (vide Wilson, 1922). Now, however, the author has been able to obtain from the same host a male of this copepod which is here described. The evidence from this description concludes the argument in favour of the inclusion of this form within the genus Pseudocycnus.