CARIBEOPSYLLUS CHAWAYI, NEW GENUS, NEW SPECIES (COPEPODA, CYCLOPOIDA,THAUMATOPSYLLIDAE), FROM A MEXICAN REEF AREA

A member of the cyclopoid family Thaumatopsyllidae was found in plankt on samples collected at night in a reef area of the southern portion o f the Mexican Caribbean coast. This copepod shows a combination of cha racters peculiar enough to designate it as a new genus and species. Th e new genus Caribeopsyllus can be distinguished mainly by the presence of 4 urosomal somites, a fused first pediger, a I-segmented fifth leg , 3 terminal furcal setae, and anal somite over 35% of total body leng th. The new genus differs from the other known genera in the family al so in the proportions of the body and some appendages. Only 3 other mo notypic genera of this group are known, each from Sweden and Norway, N icobar Islands, and Australia. This is the first record of a thaumatop syliid in the Western Hemisphere.