Superorder RHIZOCEPHALA Müller, 1862

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Introduction

Rhizocephalans are internal parasites of other crustaceans mostly visible only as the externa, a swollen egg-carrying sac often under the abdomen of a decapod. The most detailed explanations of the biology, complex life history and systematics of the Rhizocephala are by Høeg (1995) and by Høeg & Lützen (1995, 1996). Two orders were previously recognised: order Akentrogonida, comprising six families (Høeg & Rybakov 1992) with one represented in tropical Australia, and order Kentrogonida, comprising three families represented in museum collections by described species of Sacculinidae and several records of undescribed species of this family and of Peltogastridae. These two orders were abandoned as they were found to be polyphyletic in the molecular phylogeny of Høeg et al. (2019).

General References

Høeg, J.T. 1995. The biology and life cycle of the Rhizocephala (Cirripedia). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 75: 517-550

Høeg, J.T., Noever, C., Rees, D.A., Crandall, K.A. & Glenner, H. 2019. A new molecular phylogeny-based taxonomy of parasitic barnacles (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Rhizocephala). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 190: 632–653

Høeg, J.T. & Lützen, J. 1995. Life cycle and reproduction in the Cirripedia Rhizocephala. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Reviews 33: 427-485

Høeg, J.T. & Lützen, J. 1996. Super-order des Rhizocéphales (Rhizocephala F. Müller, 1862). pp. 541-568 in Forest, J. (ed.). Traité de Zoologie. Anatomie, Systématique, Biologie. Publié sous la direction de Pierre-P. Grassé. Tome VII. Crustacés. Fascicule 2. Généralités (suite) et systématique (Céphalocarides à Syncarides). Paris : Masson éditeur 1002 pp.

Høeg, J.T. & Rybakov, A.V. 1992. Revision of the Rhizocephala Akentrogonida (Cirripedia), with a list of all the species and a key to the identification families. Journal of Crustacean Biology 12: 600-609

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