Occurrence of praniza larvae of a gnathiid (Isopoda, Gnathiidae) on wild-caught orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton, 1822) (Perciformes, Serranidae), in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines

Praniza larvae of a gnathiid isopod were retrieved from the gills and branchial cavity of wild-caught orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton, 1822) (Perciformes, Serranidae) in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines. The prevalence and mean intensity of the praniza larvae were 82.3% and 2.2 on the gill filaments and 23.5% and 2.5 in the branchial cavity, respectively. The praniza larva is described and illustrated as there has been no work on the morphology of the parasite in the country where it was collected, to date. This report involves a new record for larval gnathiid infection on E. coioides in the Philippines.