Parasitic copepods (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida) from deep-sea and mid-water fishes

The stages in the metamorphosis of the pennellid Cardiodectes medusaeus (Wilson) are described from mid-water fishes in the Indo-Pacific. The earliest metamorphic stage was found within the body cavity of the second host and indicates a double origin for the frontal processes of the cephalic holdfast in this species. A new species of Lophoura (family Sphyriidae) is described from a single female taken from a deep-water synaphobranchid eel caught in the North Atlantic. The new species, L. simplex, is characterised by the lack of any neck processes. Another sphyriid, Periplexis lobodes Wilson, is reported for the second time. It was found on a deep-sea alepocephalid belonging to the genus Rouleina in Fijian waters.