Infestation of two shrimp species of the genus Palaemon Fabricius, 1798 (Decapoda, Palaemonidae) by an isopod of the genus Probopyrus Giard & Bonnier, 1888 (Bopyridae) from the Brazilian southeast coast

Abstract

We determined the infestation rate of Probopyrus sp. in populations of Palaemon pandaliformis (Stimpson, 1871) and P. northropi (Rankin, 1898) in the Ubatumirim River, localized in a mangrove ecosystem on Ubatumirim Beach, northern coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Samplings were carried out monthly from April 2003 to March 2004. Monthly prevalence varied from 0 to 4.94 % for P. pandaliformis, and from 0 to 4.54 % for P. northropi. This is the first record of Probopyrus sp. infesting the studied species in this region. Species of Probopyrus (Giard and Bonnier, 1888) seem to have a high plasticity with regard to palaemonid hosts, as they can be parasites of shrimps in both Palaemon (Fabricius, 1798) and Macrobrachium (Spence Bate, 1868). The linear relationships between the parasite and host sizes suggest that the parasite infests both hosts early in their development. We concluded that the infestation of Probopyrus sp. has little impact on Palaemon populations, mostly due to the low prevalence of infestation.

New occurrences, mean infestation intensity and prevalence of parasitic isopods (Isopoda, Cymothoida, Bopyridae) associated with Macrobrachium amazonicum (Decapoda, Palaemonidae) from the mouth of the Amazon River

“…We record here, for the first time, infestation of M. amazonicum by P. floridensis and P. palaemoni on the north coast of Brazil. According to Pralon et al (2018) , infestations of Probopyrus species are not limited to specific host species or genera, and this is supported by the present study that reports four Probopyrus species infesting M. amazonicum .…”

“…This is consistent with other studies conducted on carideans, in which parasite prevalence was found to be higher in females ( Chaplin-Ebanks & Curran, 2007 ; Rasch & Bauer, 2015 ; Barros et al, 2021 ) or equal for both sexes ( Marin Jarrin & Shanks, 2008 ). Although Pralon et al (2018) did not conclude that Probopyrus has sex-specific prevalence, due to the low number of parasites found in the specimens that they collected, our data suggest otherwise. We found that species of Probopyrus showed higher prevalence in female hosts.…”