Abstract / Introduction / Summary:
Ten ethanol-preserved specimens of argulid branchiuran were found in the crustacean collection of the Toyama Science Museum (TOYA, Toyama City, central Japan) and are identified as Argulus japonicus Thiele, 1900 (TOYA-Cr 23795–23803, nine adult females; TOYA-Cr 23804, one adult male). These specimens were collected from the body surface of a common carp Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758 in Tsubata, Kahoku County, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, on 11 June 1978. It is unknown whether the infected common carp was reared or wild. This finding of A. japonicus represents the second record for the species from Ishikawa Prefecture, where it was previously collected from common carp and koi carp C. carpio reared at a fisheries experimental station. Both male and female specimens are briefly described here. They have a single plumose seta on or near the posterior margin of each coxa of the first legs and 43– 50 supporting rods in each marginal membrane of the first maxillae. These features correspond to those of A. japonicus reported from Japan.
