New hosts and distribution records for bopyrid isopods parasitising alpheid shrimps (Decapoda, Alpheidae) in the SW Gulf of Mexico and Mexican Caribbean

Parasitic bopyrid isopods of hermit crabs (Anomura, Paguridae) from the Atlantic coast of Mexico, with notes on their reproduction and distribution

“…Sixty-three individuals were parasitized by bopyrids; their size, considered as shield length (SL), and sex were recorded. The parasites were removed from the hosts in order to recognize their specific identities and to record their total length (TL), following Romero-Rodríguez & Álvarez (2020). The total length of asymmetric females was measured from the anterior margin of the second or third thoracic somite of the longer side to the posterior margin of the pleon.…”

“…Fecundity was estimated for all the ovigerous females by direct counting of eggs, in both hosts and parasites. Bopyrid embryos were classified as egg, embryo I, embryo II and epicaridium larvae following to Romero-Rodríguez & Álvarez (2020). For each bopyrid species, prevalence was considered as the total number of hermit crabs divided by the number of parasitized individuals, expressed as percentage.…”

“…1). In this region, only three bopyrid and one entoniscid species had been recorded until 2005 (see Román-Contreras 2008) but recently four more bopyrids species were registered in the area (Romero-Rodríguez & Álvarez 2020Bortolini et al 2021) which reveals Veracruz as a high diversity area for these parasites.…”

Cataphryxus zapoteca sp. nov. (Isopoda, Bopyridae) and new hosts and records of bopyrid isopods from the Mexican Eastern Pacific

“…The size, considered as carapace length (CL) and sex for each host were registered. The bopyrids were gently removed from their hosts in order to recognize their specific identities and to record the size of each parasite, that was considered as total length (TL) and measured from the anterior margin of the first pereomere of the longer side to the posterior margin of the pleon (Romero-Rodríguez & Álvarez, 2020 ). For each bopyrid ovigerous female fecundity was estimated by direct counting of embryos, except in brood pouches with large numbers of embryos in which a subsample was counted directly and the number of embryos was calculated by extrapolation.…”

“…Table 1 shows the average fecundity and embryo size recorded in two ovigerous females of P. markhami , to our knowledge, these are the first reproductive data for this bopyrid. The fecundity calculated for P. markhami is among the highest recorded for any bopyrid (see Cericola & Williams, 2015 ; Romero-Rodríguez & Álvarez, 2020 ; 2023 ) which could be explained by the large size of the ovigerous female examined (~18 mm TL) because in bopyrids fecundity is positively related to the size of ovigerous females (see Cericola & Williams, 2015 ). Sizes of embryos in stage I (Table 1 ) are similar to those previously reported for other bopyrid species but epicaridium larval size (Table 1 ) is slightly larger than those of other species (see Romero-Rodríguez and Álvarez, 2020 , 2023 ).…”