Lernaeopoda species (Lernaeopodidae: Siphonostomatoida) from South Africa with the redescription of Lernaeopoda musteli Thomson, 1890

Lernaeopoda Blainville, 1822, a genus of the Lernaeopodidae Milne Edwards, 1840, has members very similar to those of Neoalbionella ozdikmen, 2008. However, the morphology of the male habitus is quite different for representatives of the two genera while females can be distinguished by the armature of the maxillule palp and the maxilliped claw. Lernaeopoda currently consists of only four valid species since L. musteli Thomson, 1890 is considered as a species inquirenda while the generic identity of L. major (Heegaard, 1962) is questionable due to the absence of information regarding the male and details about the armature of the maxillule palp and maxilliped claw of the female. Furthermore, L. tenuis Castro-Romero & Baeza-Kuroki, 1986 should be moved to Neoalbionella on the basis of the armature of the maxillule palp and the maxilliped claw. Collected lernaeopodids from elasmobranchs off South Africa were studied and identified as L. galei Kroyer, 1837, L. bidiscalis Kane, 1892 and L. musteli. The reasons for the identification of collected specimens as L. musteli are provided and thus the female of L. musteli is redescribed together with the habitus of the male. Additional data is provided regarding the distribution and host specificity of the valid Lernaeopoda species.