Subfamily Hemiarthrinae Markham, 1972

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Introduction

Hemiarthrines are ventral abdominal parasites of caridean shrimps (except for three species found elsewhere on the outside of their hosts' bodies). The subfamily was redefined by Markham (1985).

Diagnosis

Female: Body usually greatly distorted; head deeply set into pereon, occasionally obliterating center of first pereomere; pereomeres distinct on concave side only; brood pouch formed by largely fused oostegites 2–4 of convex side only, completely closed, greatly expanded on convex side, covering most of ventral and lateral surfaces of body; pereopods nearly always all present on convex side, 1 (most anterior) to 7 present on concave side; usually 5 pleomeres, generally first 4 with prominent lateral plates; pleopods usually on all, but terminal pleomere, variously uniramous or biramous; uropods absent or variously developed. Male: Body at least twice as long as broad; head and pereomere 1 separate to fully fused, all other pereomeres separate; no midventral tubercles; pleon fused, without appendages.

General References

Markham, J.C. 1972. Two new genera of western Atlantic abdominally parasitizing Bopyridae (Isopoda, Epicaridea), with a proposed new name for their subfamily. Crustaceana Suppl. 3: 39-56

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

History of changes