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The isopod is a temporary ectoparasite of the puffer fish Amblyrhynchotes honckenii from temperate southern Africa in the Southern Indian Ocean, more specifically from the southern coast of South Africa (Western and Eastern Cape provinces).
Isopods bite their victims and suck their bodily fluids (blood and cellular juices), often until the victims die.
Gnathia pipinde occurs at low intensity in South Africa and its attacks rarely result in infection of hosts), despite the wide distribution of the host fish (temperate south coast to subtropical east coast of South Africa).
After capture, live pufferfish were examined for external parasites, and fish with gnathiid larvae were kept alive in fresh, aerated seawater until the gnathiids had completed feeding and detached from the host.
All larvae were attached to the dorsal and lateral areas of the body just behind the head of the fish.
The fish were kept alive until the fully fed larvae detached 6 - 8 hours after capture.
Etymology
The Xhosa word "pipinde" was chosen because "pipi" means "penis" in the language of this South African tribe and the suffix "nde" is long, thus referring to the most distinctive feature of this species. It is pronounced as pie-pie-n-dê.
Literature reference:
Smit NJ, Hadfield KA (2022) Gnathia pipinde sp. nov. (Crustacea, Isopoda, Gnathiidae), a temporary parasite of the pufferfish, Amblyrhynchotes honckenii, from temperate southern Africa. ZooKeys 1129: 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1129.90986
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
Isopods bite their victims and suck their bodily fluids (blood and cellular juices), often until the victims die.
Gnathia pipinde occurs at low intensity in South Africa and its attacks rarely result in infection of hosts), despite the wide distribution of the host fish (temperate south coast to subtropical east coast of South Africa).
After capture, live pufferfish were examined for external parasites, and fish with gnathiid larvae were kept alive in fresh, aerated seawater until the gnathiids had completed feeding and detached from the host.
All larvae were attached to the dorsal and lateral areas of the body just behind the head of the fish.
The fish were kept alive until the fully fed larvae detached 6 - 8 hours after capture.
Etymology
The Xhosa word "pipinde" was chosen because "pipi" means "penis" in the language of this South African tribe and the suffix "nde" is long, thus referring to the most distinctive feature of this species. It is pronounced as pie-pie-n-dê.
Literature reference:
Smit NJ, Hadfield KA (2022) Gnathia pipinde sp. nov. (Crustacea, Isopoda, Gnathiidae), a temporary parasite of the pufferfish, Amblyrhynchotes honckenii, from temperate southern Africa. ZooKeys 1129: 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1129.90986
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
