Family AEGIDAE White, 1850

Syscenus springthorpei

© Copyright from Bruce 1997.

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Introduction

Aegids are marine (rarely freshwater) commensals or micropredators of fish and freshwater shrimps. Some species are recorded from sponges. The family is cosmopolitan with numerous species. Brusca (1983) and Bruce (1983) have provided recent introductions to the literature. Bruce et al. (1982) and Bruce (1985, 1993a) gave keys to separate this family from similar families. Bruce (1993b, 2009) provided keys to the genera. Seven genera and 33 species are known from Australia, with Alitropus (freshwater) and Syscenus (mesopelagic), each represented only by a single species.

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

AEGIDAE: Aega punctulata Miers, 1881 [Occurrence in Australia based on a misidentification in Hale (1937) from off Maria Island, TAS, see Bruce (2009).] — Bruce, N.L. 2009. The marine fauna of New Zealand: Isopoda, Aegidae (Crustacea). NIWA Biodiversity Memoir 122: 1-252 [235-236]

Diagnosis

Body evenly vaulted or quite depressed. Eyes when present lateral or dorsolateral, usually large, sometimes contiguous or nearly so. Both antennae well developed; division between peduncle and flagellum distinct; flagella multiarticulate. Antenna 1 shorter than antenna 2. Mandible incisor narrow, molar process present; lacinia mobilis and spine row (usually) absent. Maxilla 1 styliform, with terminal robust setae. Maxilla 2 with small distomedial lobe joined to largely lateral lobe; each lobe with 2 or more apical robust setae. Maxilliped with endite and epipod; palp with 3 to 5 articles, at least 3 and 4 with large hooked spines. Pereopods 1-3 prehensile (i.e. stongly curved); pereopods 4-7 ambulatory. Pleon with 4-5 free pleonites, plus pleotelson. Uropods anterolateral, flattened (except Xenuraega). Pleopodal rami lamellar, without ridges or folding, with plumose marginal setae except on pleopod 5 endopod. This definition follows that Brusca (1983).

General References

Bruce, N.L. 1983. Aegidae (Isopoda: Crustacea) from Australia with descriptions of three new species. Journal of Natural History 17: 757-788

Bruce, N.L. 1985. Calyptolana hancocki, a new genus and species of marine isopod (Cirolanidae) from Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, with a synopsis of Cirolanidae known from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Crustacean Biology 5: 707-716

Bruce, N.L. 1993a. Two new genera of marine isopod crustaceans (Flabellifera: Sphaeromatidae) from southern Australia, with a reappraisal of the Sphaeromatidae. Invertebrate Taxonomy 7: 151-171

Bruce, N.L. 2009. The marine fauna of New Zealand: Isopoda, Aegidae (Crustacea). NIWA Biodiversity Memoir 122: 1-252

Bruce, N.L., Brusca, R.C. & Delaney, P.M. 1982. The status of the isopod families Corallanidae Hansen, 1890, and Excorallanidae Stebbing, 1904 (Flabellifera). Journal of Crustacean Biology 2: 464-468

Brusca, R.C. 1983. A monograph on the isopod family Aegidae in the tropical eastern Pacific. I. The genus Aega. Allan Hancock Monographs in Marine Biology 12: 1-39

White, A. 1850. List of specimens of British animals in the collections of the British Museum, Part IV, Crustacea. London : British Museum (Natural History) 141 pp.

History of changes