Branchiura — a compendium of the geographical distribution and a summary of their biology

Abstract

This is a compendium of current knowledge about the crustacean subclass Branchiura Thorell, 1864. An overview of the group is presented, starting from the first species description, and reports of taxonomic changes. It also provides a condensed retrospect of each genus and includes the characteristics of each genus, the geographical distribution of each species arranged according to occurrence per continent; and aspects of the anatomy, physiology, host-parasite interactions and phylogeny are discussed. In order to condense the information available on members of the subclass, additional literature sources on each aspect are tabulated. The species lists provided by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) were used as a starting point as these were the most comprehensive currently available.

Argulus from the Pascagoula River, MS, USA, with an Emphasis on Those of the Threatened Gulf Sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi

“…Beginning in 2018 (as time permitted) we began inspecting additional fish species (see Table 2) for argulids; however, none were found on any hosts other than Atlantic stingray, bowfin, and flathead catfish. In other systems argulids have been reported from longnose gar (five species of Argulus see [4]), southern flounder [9], and gizzard shad (at least two species of Argulus [27,44]), so it is somewhat surprising that we did not detect any individuals on these hosts. Therefore, a more thorough and systematic approach to documenting the diversity of argulids in the Pascagoula River is needed to determine other host associations.…”

“…Meehean [7] considered Argulus piperatus Wilson, 1920 a junior subjective synonym of A. flavescens, but this suggestion does not seem to have been followed [4]. Wilson [34] described A. piperatus from free-living specimens collected in a tidal portion of the Shubenacadie River, Nova Scotia, Canada.…”

“…Argulidae Leach, 1819 is the sole extant family and contains four genera: Argulus Müller, 1785, Chonopeltis Thiele, 1900, Dipteropeltis Calman, 1912, and Dolops Audouin, 1837; with Argulus being the most specious genus with ca. 160 species [4]. Argulids are commonly referred to as carp lice or fish lice (but the latter common name can also refer to some species of copepods).…”

“…This behavior, along with their relatively large size, distinctive sucker-like maxillules, and compound eyes, makes individuals rather easy to spot with the naked eye. Argulid identification can be difficult because of overlapping morphological characters, the ability of some freshwater and marine species to overlap in estuarine habitats, and many species are only known from their original descriptions [2,4,7]. The three best studied species in terms of their distribution, lifecycle, host use, and ecology are Argulus coregoni Thorell, 1865, Argulus foliaceus (Linnaeus, 1758), and Argulus japonicus Thiele, 1900 (reviewed in [6]), the latter of which has been introduced throughout the world [8].…”

Dolops carvalhoi as a vector of Epistylis sp. between cultivated and wild specimens of Oreochromis niloticus in Brazil

“…Thirteen species are known to belong to Dolops most of which are endemic to the Neotropical region (South and Central America), except for two species found on other continents -Dolops ranarum, which is exclusively from Africa, and D. tasmanianus Fryer, 1969, which is found only in Tasmania (NEETHLING & AVENANT -OLDEWAGE, 2016;WoRMS, 2018). The occurrence of D. carvalhoi is recorded in 12 species of wild and cultivated Brazilian freshwater fishes (LUQUE et al, 2013), but there are few records of epibiont relationships involving peritrichs and parasitic argulids (CÔRREA et al, 2016;PALA et al, 2018).…”