Abstract / Introduction / Summary:
The cymothoid isopod Ceratothoa verrucosa (Schioedte and Meinert, 1883) is a buccal-cavity parasite of sparid fishes in Japanese waters. Recently, we collected a pair of an ovigerous female and an adult male of this isopod from a red seabream Pagrus major (Temminck and Schlegel, 1843) purchased in the fresh fish section of a supermarket in Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, central Japan. The infected fish was caught off Ishikawa Prefecture next to Fukui Prefecture and transported in fresh conditions to the latter prefecture. The collected specimens of C. verrucosa are briefly described. A large depression was found at the attachment site of the ovigerous female on the palate of the fish, and the whole ventral body portion of the female including its brood pouch fitted in the depression. The present collection of C. verrucosa indicates that this species parasitizes red seabream in the southern Sea of Japan off Ishikawa Prefecture, although it has not yet been reported from wild-caught sparids of this prefecture.
