Superfamily BOPYROIDEA Rafinesque, 1815

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Introduction

Bopyroideans are ectoparasitic isopods of other crustaceans and show extreme modification and reduction of the body in the adult stage. There are three juvenile stages before the final host is infected (Anderson & Dale 1981; Dale & Anderson 1982). The juvenile epicaridean hatches as a epicaridium which attaches to the primary host, usually a calanoid copepod. The epicaridium has suctorial mouthparts and six pairs of clawed pereopods. After several ecdyses as a microniscus on the primary host a free-swimming cryptoniscus stage results, looking much like small cirolanid, and infects the final host, usually a decapod. Subsequent stages are highly sexually dimorphic. The male retains the minute cryptoniscid form and attaches itself to the posterior ventral surface of the female. The female is much larger, distorted, with pereopods incapable of locomotion, with functionless eyes or without eyes, with reduced or no mouthparts, and most of the body devoted to egg production. She attaches within the branchial chamber or clings to the abdomen of her host.

The Bopyroidea contain several families, the number of which is variously put at between three and ten (Markham 1985 and literature cited therein, Trilles 1999). Our classification follows that of Martin & Davis (2001) but they treated the superfamily as one of two in the Epicaridea. While this may be a monophyletic clade it is not part of the hierarchy adopted for the Catalogue. All three families listed are represented in Australia. We treat the superfamily as equivalent to the Section des Bopyrina of Trilles (1999), placing what he called Section des Cryptoniscina in a separate superfamily. The largest family, Bopyridae, is the best defined and in its widest sense contains about 90% of the described species (Markham 1985). Other families (excluding those which are herein thought of as subfamilies of Bopyridae) seem to have been defined only by their differences from the Bopyridae. Originally the families were defined on the basis of host species and even today morphological definitions are hard to come by for the non-specialist.

Diagnosis

Ectoparasitic or endoparasitic isopods on other Crustacea. Female often asymmetrical, segmentation sometimes lost, sometimes distorted and reduced to only sac of eggs. Head usually with 2 rudimentary antennae 1 and 2. Mouthparts reduced, with especially rudimentary maxillae 1 and 2; mandible modified as suctorial cone or further reduced. Pereopods prehensile. Pleopods all branchial. Uropods simple, small and terminal. Male minute, usually symmetrical and more typically isopod-like. Four manca stages (epicaridium, microniscus, cryptoniscidium and bopyridium) parasitic, often of copepods.

General References

Anderson, G. & Dale, W.E. 1981. Probopyrus pandalicola (Packard) (Isopoda, Epicaridea): morphology and development of larvae in culture. Crustaceana 41: 143-161

Dale, W.E. & Anderson, G. 1982. Comparison of morphologies of Probopyrus bithynis, P. floridensis, and P. pandalicola reared in culture (Isopoda, Epicaridea). Journal of Crustacean Biology 2: 392-409

Markham, J.C. 1985. A review of the bopyrid isopods infesting caridean shrimps in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, with special reference to those collected during the Hourglass Cruises in the Gulf of Mexico. Memoirs of the Hourglass Cruises 7(3): 1-156

Martin, J.W. & Davis, G.E. 2001. An updated classification of the recent Crustacea. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Science Series 39: 1-124

Rafinesque, C.S. 1815. Analyse de la nature, ou tableau de l'univers et des corps organises. Palermo (Italy) : Privately Published 224 pp. [Date published April to July]

Trilles, J.-P. 1999. Ordre des isopodes sous-ordre des épicarides (Epicaridea Latreille, 1825). pp. 279-352 in Forest, J. Traité de Zoologie. Anatomie, systèmatique, biologie … Tom. 7 Crustacés Fasc. 3A Péracarides. Mémoires de l'Institut Océanographique, Monaco 19: 1-446

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