Pennella platycephalus Gnanamuthu 1957

• Main Author: Hogans, W. E.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Maxillopoda; Siphonostomatoida; Pennellidae; Pennella; Pennella platycephalus; Indian; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6052579; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6052579

Pennella platycephalus Gnanamuthu, 1957 (Fig. 15) Synonyms. None. Type host and locality. Cypselurus sp., Indian Ocean. Morphology. Size: 37 mm. Papillae: partial coverage, a few spherical only, configured in a single small group. Holdfasts: two only, short. First and second antenna (not described or figured- no information). Plumes: simple, all but one single or double; one set shown with four plumules (original figures). Remarks. Species inquirendae. Original description from a single specimen found on a flyingfish (Cypselurus). Species inquirendae according to Hogans (1988a), based on missing type material and brief description/ figures. Pennella platycephalus is one of several new species of small Pennella described from flyingfish in the Indian Ocean by Gnanamuthu (1957) in a single paper. Pennella platycephalus exhibits a cephalothorax shape (Figure 15 b) unique amongst Pennella species; the cephalothoracic papillae are few in number and spherical, a feature not found in any other species parasitizing flyingfish. The original specimen was described from a gravid female with eggs strings. There have been no reports of this species since the initial record. Published as part of Hogans, W. E., 2017, Review of Pennella Oken, 1816 (Copepoda: Pennellidae) with a description of Pennella benzi sp. nov., a parasite of Escolar, Lepidocybium flavobrunneum (Pisces) in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, pp. 1-38 in Zootaxa 4244 (1) on page 27, DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.4244.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/400400