The harpacticoid copepod, Nitokra affinis Gurney, 1927 was recorded from Vellar estuary (south-east India) for the first time. This species was consistently found in plankton samples collected during June and July, 2010. The samples were collected by the horizontal towing of a plankton net for 20 min. In this paper, we provide drawings and descriptions of Nitokra affinis and discuss the possible mechanisms of its introduction. We also compare a 769 bp sequence of its 18S ribosomal (r) DNA with already publicly available sequences, which is characterized as a meaningful barcode for the subspecies identification of Nitokra affinis in the future.
