Two new species of Sagum Wilson, 1913 (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Lernanthropidae) parasitic on reef fishes off the Ryukyu Islands.

Two new species of parasitic copepods, Sagum gurukun n. sp. and S. bitaro n. sp. (Siphonostomatoida: Lernanthropidae), are described based on specimens collected from the gill filaments of the double-lined fusilier Pterocaesio digramma (Bleeker) (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Caesionidae) and the five-lined snapper Lutjanus quinquelineatus (Bloch) (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Lutjanidae), respectively, caught off Iriomote-jima Island, the Ryukyu Islands, East China Sea, Japan. The findings bring the number of species of Sagum to 14. The two new species are similar in the morphology of the head and the legs 3 and 4 to the three congeners, S. folium Ho, Liu & Liu, 2011, S. paracaesionis Izawa, 2014 and S. vietnamiensis Kazachenko, Kovaleva, Nguyen & Ngo, 2017. Sagum gurukun n. sp. is differentiated from the three congeners by the proportions of the caudal rami, the absence of leg 5, and the shape of the legs 1 and 2. Sagum bitaro n. sp. differs from the three congeners and S. gurukun n. sp. by the presence of the conical leg 5 armed with an apical seta. A key to the species of the genus Sagum, based on the available information on female morphology in previous publications and the present study, is provided. To date, a total of 19 species of lernanthropid copepods considered valid are known in Japanese waters.