Abstract
The female of Perulernaea gamitanae gen. et sp. nov. (Copepoda: Cyclopoida: Lernaeidae) is
described from the nasal fossae of an important food fish, Colossoma macropomum (CUVIER),
collected in the Peruvian Amazon near lquitos. The new genus differs from others in the family by
having blunt head anchors, a well defined slender "neck", a fusiform hindbody, uropods, four pairs of
well separated legs, genital pores which are post-equatorial in the hindbody and multiseriate egg sacs.
The host is one of the largest freshwater fish of the Amazon region and is of considerable economic
importance.
