Sergio Hernández Trujillo

A new regional record for the pandarid copepod, Dinemoura producta (Müller, 1785), parasitic on the shortfin mako shark captured off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Dinemoura producta (Muller, 1785) is a member of the Pandaridae, which comprises about 50 species of siphonostomatoid copepods exclusively parasitic on the body surface of elasmobranchs. The species is the type species of the genus and was first reported as Caligus productus Muller, 1785 from a shark from Norway. Latreille (1829) was correct to remove C. productus from that conglomeration and created for it a new genus called Dinemoura. The genus is now represented by four valid species, all of them occurring on the body surface of large pelagic sharks. In Cressey’s (1967) revision of the Pandaridae, 11 synonyms were listed under the species of D. producta suggesting a long and confusing history on the recognition and name changes of this species.

Female gonad morphology and maturation in Centropages furcatus (Dana, 1852)

Abstract Centropages furcatus is a dominant species of the planktonic community in the Ensenada de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Little is known about gonad morphology and maturation of this species, and that knowledge is key for understanding the reproductive activity and the mode of eproduction of C. furcatus. The histological analysis revealed that, similar to most calanoid copepods, the sac-shaped ovary of C. furcatus is located dorsally to the centre of the prosoma; oocyte maturation takes place outside the ovary. Besides, in agreement with the Calanus-type gonad, most oocyte development stages occur simultaneously, and frequently many oocytes mature synchronously. However, the spatial location of oocytes differs from the one described for the Calanus-type gonad. In C. furcatus, previtellogenic oocytes are arranged in an outer layer spreading longitudinally and across the circumference of the prosoma; oocyte growth and maturation takes place radially towards the b dy centre. For this reason, a...Abstract Centropages furcatus is a dominant species of the planktonic community in the Ensenada de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Little is known about gonad morphology and maturation of this species, and that knowledge is key for understanding the reproductive activity and the mode of eproduction of C. furcatus. The histological analysis revealed that, similar to most calanoid copepods, the sac-shaped ovary of C. furcatus is located dorsally to the centre of the prosoma; oocyte maturation takes place outside the ovary. Besides, in agreement with the Calanus-type gonad, most oocyte development stages occur simultaneously, and frequently many oocytes mature synchronously. However, the spatial location of oocytes differs from the one described for the Calanus-type gonad. In C. furcatus, previtellogenic oocytes are arranged in an outer layer spreading longitudinally and across the circumference of the prosoma; oocyte growth and maturation takes place radially towards the b dy centre. For this reason, a new gonad morphology type is hereby proposed for C. furcatus, naming it furcatus-type.