A Morphological Study of Kroyeria minuta Pillai, 1968 (Copepoda: Eudactylinidae) Infecting the Milk Shark, Rhizoprionodon acutus Rüppell, 1937 off Nellore Coast, Bay of Bengal, India

Copepods of the genus Kroyeria Van Beneden, 1853 (Eudactylinidae) are ectoparasites of Elasmobranchs frequently infecting the gill filaments. Eudactylinid parasites were sampled from 152 milk sharks, Rhizoprionodon acutus collected from the Nellore coast, Bay of Bengal. With the application of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy we identified Kroyeria minuta Pillai, 1968, which is a new geographical record for the east coast of India. Fifteen parasites were acquired from the gill filaments of 9 infected fishes and its main morphological characteristics include minute structure, long dorsal stylets not extending beyond the hind border of the 4th thoracic segment, thoracic segments with interpodal bars, short 3-segmented abdomen, uniseriate egg sacs, 8-jointed antennule, robust antenna, slender maxilla with apically forked claw and two segmented maxillipede.