On Candacia samassae Pesta, a rare calanoid copepod from the Arabian Sea

Abstract

Pesta (1941) described a new species, Candacia samassae from the Red Sea based on two females collected during the ' POLA' Expedition, 1896. In a revision of the family Candaciidae, Grice (1963) recognises C. samassae as a valid species based on its original description. Recently, Jones (1966) recorded both sexes of this species from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal but without any description. In thecourse of examining the plankton samples obtained during the cruises of R.V. VARUNA off the west coast of India from 1962-66, the author came across specimens of both sexes. 16 species of the genus Candacia have to-date been reported from the Indian Ocean and the males of all but C. samassae are known. The occurrence of both females aind males in a few samples, the specific characters common to both, namely ; the presence of a mid-dorsal hump on cephalosome and the nature of mandibles and cephalic appendages have helped in the identification of the males. As the male has remained undescribed, and Pesta's original description of the female is incomplete in diagnostic details, a detailed description of both sexes is given here.