Two new species of the parasitic copepod genus Dissonus Wilson, 1906 are described: D. excavatus n. sp. from the gills of a labrid, Bodianus perditio, and a lutjanid, Macolor niger, collected off New Caledonia and Taiwan, and D. inaequalis n. sp. from a hemiscylliid elasmobranch, Chiloscyllium punctatum, collected off Sarawak (Malaysia) and the Philippines. Material of D. heronensis Kabata, 1966 is described from a balistid host, Pseudobalistes fuscus, off New Caledonia, and this constitutes a new host record for this parasite. D. manteri Kabata, 1966 was collected from four serranid host species off New Caledonia and from one of the same hosts off Taiwan. Two of the hosts from New Caledonia, Plectropomus laevis and Epinephelus cyanopodus, represent new host records. D. pastinum Deets & Dojiri, 1990 was recognised as a new synonym of D. nudiventris Kabata, 1966, so the total number of valid species is now twelve. Material from museum collections of D. nudiventris, D. similis Kabata, 1966 and D. spinifer Wilson, 1906 was re-examined and provided new information which is utilised in a key to all valid species of Dissonus.

BOA1