Five Species of Parasitic Copepods (Siphonostomatoida: Pandaridae) from the Body Surface of a White Shark Captured in Morro Bay, California

Abstract

Five pandarid (Copepoda) species, Dinemoura produeta, D. latifolia, Echthrogaleus coleoptratus, Pandarus bicolor, and Aehtheinus oblongus, were collected from the external body surface of a white shark, Careharodon carcharias, taken from Morro Bay in the northeastern Pacific Ocean off central California. This is the first report of parasitic copepods collected from C. carcharias captured in the northeastern Pacific along the West Coast of North America. It is proposed that the species-rich infections of some white sharks may be the result of the wide wanderings of individual sharks through waters inhabited by other elasmobranchs.