Cabirnalia, Boyko & Van Der Meij, 2018

CABIRNALIA View in CoL GEN. NOV.

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Diagnosis

Mature female: strongly recurved, circular in outline. Strongly convex dorsal margin without lobes but with cuticular indentations indicating segmentation; ventral sides meeting medially, with several small, plate-like areas demarcated at midpoint. Attachment trunk short, with single attachment lobe, medially divided and expanded into two broad sections. Parasitic on abdomen or pereopods of crab hosts.

Type species

Cabirnalia nausicaa sp. nov.

Etymology

The generic name is a combination of Cabirops and Danalia , because the genus has characters found in both genera. The gender is feminine.

Remarks

This genus is most similar to Danalia in the overall shape of the mature females and the presence of an attachment trunk. However, the medioventral area of the holotype of the type species shows several small plate-like structures, very similar to those seen on species of Cabirops and not found in any species of Danalia except D. caulleryi Nierstrasz & Brender à Brandis, 1923 (see Boyko, 2015). As Cabirops species do not possess any attachment structures and Danalia species do not possess medioventral plates, this new genus is necessary to accommodate the new species described below. Danalia caulleryi is also placed in Cabirnalia gen. nov., as Cabirnalia caulleryi comb. nov., because the unique holotype has mediovental plates and shows evidence of a now-lost attachment trunk (see Boyko, 2015). Even though the structure of the attachment trunk of C. caulleryi comb. nov. is not known, it is not likely to be conspecific with C. nausicaa gen. nov., sp. nov. because (1) the cuticular ridges of C. caulleryi comb. nov. are much more robust than those found on the type species and (2) the host of C. caulleryi comb. nov. is a galatheid, not a gall crab. Cabirnalia gen. nov. is therefore unique among cryptoiscoids in containing species found parasitizing both brachyuran and anomuran hosts.