Suborder EPICARIDEA Latreille, 1825

Museums

Regional Maps

• Epicarides Latreille, P.A. 1825. Familles Naturelles du Règne Animal, exposées succinctement et dans un ordre analytique, avec l'indication de leurs genres. Paris : J.-B. Baillière 570 pp. [291] [original spelling].

Introduction

Epicaridea are isopods that parasitise crustacean intermediate and definitive hosts. Epicarideans are found as either ecto- or endoparasites on or in a wide range of crustacean definitive hosts; nearly all epicaridean species that have been investigated use a pelagic calanoid copepod as their intermediate host. Within the epicarideans, there are presently 15 families: three in Bopyroidea and 12 in Cryptoniscoidea. Bopyridae is the most speciose group with over 600 species.

Adult female epicarideans reach sexual maturity on or in the definitive host. Typically, parasitised definitive hosts harbour one female and male pair, but several males may be found. The male isopods move into the brood chamber and fertilise the eggs within the marsupium of the female. The fertilised eggs develop into epicaridium larvae and are then released into the water column to parasitise the intermediate copepod hosts. The epicaridium larva feeds on the copepods and metamorphoses into a microniscus larva that subsequently moults into a cryptoniscus larva that detaches and seeks out the definitive crustacean host. See review of life cycle and natural history of Epicaridea in Williams & Boyko (2012).

Epicaridea was not recognised as a suborder of Isopoda by some authors (e.g., Brandt & Poore, 2003) but was instead treated as two superfamilies within the suborder Cymothoida Wägele, 1989, Bopyroidea and Cryptoniscoidea. However, recent molecular evidence supports a monophyletic Epicaridea at the subordinal level (Boyko et al., 2013; An et al., 2022). The relationships of Epicaridea to other isopod suborders is uncertain but they are likely to be related to isopods ectoparasitic on fishes (Dreyer & Wägele, 2001).

General References

An, J., Yin, X., Chen, R., Boyko, C.B. & Liu, X. 2022. Integrative taxonomy of the subfamily Orbioninae Codreanu, 1967 (Crustacea: Isopoda) based on mitochondrial and nuclear data with evidence that supports Epicaridea Latreille, 1825 as a suborder. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 180: 107681

Boyko,C.B., Moss,J., Williams,J.D. & Sheilds,J.F. 2013. A molecular phylogeny of Bopyroidea and Cryptoniscoidea (Crustacea: Isopoda). Systematics and Biodiversity 11(4): 495-506 [Date published 16/12/2013]

Brandt, A. & Poore, G.C.B. 2003. Higher classification of the flabelliferan and related Isopoda based on a reappraisal of relationships. Invertebrate Systematics 17: 893-923

Dreyer, H. & Wägele, J.-W. 2001. Parasites of crustaceans (Isopoda: Bopyridae) evolved from fish parasites: molecular and morphological evidence. Zoology (Jena) 103: 157-178

Williams, J.D. & Boyko, C.B. 2012. The global diversity of parasitic isopods associated with crustacean hosts (Isopoda: Bopyroidea and Cryptoniscoidea). PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science) 7(4): e35350

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