Abstract

Parasitic copepods of the genus Caligus infest the external tissues, mainly skin, of marine fishes. The objective of this study is to review the published literature about the distribution of the Caligus species that occur on the shores of mainland and insular Chile. Caligus species may be specialist or generalist in the selection of their host species. Hence, for each species of Caligus, we give a list of host fish species. The literature reports the presence of 12 species of Caligus. They may be cosmopolitan (C. bonito, C. flexispina, and C. productus), distributed in the Asia-Pacific region (C. lalandei, C. lichiae, and C. quadratus), restricted to Peru and Chile (C. cheilodactyli and C. debueni), or endemic to northern Chile (C. crusmae), southern Chile (C. rogercresseyi and C. teres), and Easter Island (C. fistulariae). Biogeographical topics are discussed in the present study.