Ahmed Q.1*, Mohammad Ali Q.1, Marin I.N.2, Mubarak S.1, Baloch A.1 2025. First record of Clausidium sarii (Copepoda: Clausidiidae) from the coastal waters of Pakistan, with the first description of the male and a new host // Arthropoda Selecta. Vol.34. No.1: 41–50 [in English].
1 The Marine Reference Collection and Resources Centre, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan.
2 A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Leninsky prospect, 33, Moscow 119071 Russia.
Quratulan Ahmed: quratulanahmed_ku@yahoo.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7597-2483
Qadeer Mohammad Ali: qmali@uok.edu.pk ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0499-0801
Ivan N. Marin: coralliodecapoda@mail.ru ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0552-8456
Shumaila Mubarak: shumailaali66@yahoo.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1208-1728
Ateeqa Baloch: balochateeqa@gmail.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8036-3237
* corresponding author
doi: 10.15298/arthsel.34.1.03
ABSTRACT. The article represents a new record and host association of the symbiotic copepod Clausidium sarii Sepahvand et Kihara, 2018 (Copepoda: Clausidiidae) with the burrowing axiid shrimp Corallianassa martensi (Miers, 1884) (Decapoda: Axiidea: Callichiridae), which were collected from the intertidal zone of the coast of Buleji, Karachi, Pakistan. Morphological description of a male of this species is also presented for the first time. This is the first discovery of this copepod species and host association in the coastal waters of Pakistan, and the second record of the species in the northern part of the Arabian Sea since the original description, which was based on a single holotype female. Our study also shows that the species of the genus Clausidium may not always be strictly specific to a single host, and can instead be found on several different species within the same taxonomic group (genus, family).
KEY WORDS: diversity, association, parasitism, symbiosis, morpho-taxonomy, Indo-Pacific.