Chiridotea coeca

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Chiridotea coeca
Chiridotea coeca (YPM IZ 077000) 002.jpeg
Chiridotea coeca 1818
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Superorder: Peracarida
Order: Isopoda
Family: Chaetiliidae
Genus: Chiridotea
Species:
C. coeca
Binomial name
Chiridotea coeca
(Say, 1818)
Synonyms [1]
  • Idotea coecaSay, 1818
  • Chiridotea nigrescensWigley, 1961

Chiridotea coeca, the sand isopod, is a species of isopod crustacean found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from Nova Scotia to Florida.

Characteristics

Adult sand isopods are horizontally flattened. [2] The thorax is almost round from above and the long, robust legs with large setae. The abdomen is short and pointed. Sand isopods reach 15 mm (0.59 in) long and 7 mm (0.28 in) wide. They use the last pair of legs to dig tunnels in sand. When removed from the tunnels (for instance, by wave action), sand isopods swim down to the substrate, where they dig underground again.

Ecology

Chiridotea coeca feeds on carrion, which it holds with its gnathopods while chewing pieces off with its mandibles. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isopoda</span> Order of arthropods

Isopoda is an order of crustacean, which includes woodlice and their relatives. Members of this group are called Isopods and include both terrestrial and aquatic species. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax.

<i>Bathynomus giganteus</i> Species of crustacean

Bathynomus giganteus is a species of aquatic crustacean, of the order Isopoda. It is a member of the giant isopods (Bathynomus), and as such it is related—albeit distantly—to shrimps and crabs. It was the first Bathynomus species ever documented and was described in 1879 by French zoologist Alphonse Milne Edwards after the isopod was found in fishermen's nets off the coast of the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico.

<i>Cymothoa exigua</i> Species of parasitic marine isopod

Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse, is a parasitic isopod of the family Cymothoidae. It enters fish through the gills. The female attaches to the tongue, while the male attaches to the gill arches beneath and behind the female. Females are 8–29 mm (0.3–1.1 in) long and 4–14 mm (0.16–0.55 in) wide. Males are about 7.5–15 mm (0.3–0.6 in) long and 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) wide. The parasite severs the blood vessels in the fish's tongue, causing the tongue to fall off. It then attaches itself to the remaining stub of tongue and the parasite itself effectively serves as the fish's new "tongue".

<i>Coenobita perlatus</i> Species of crustacean

Coenobita perlatus is a species of terrestrial hermit crab. It is known as the strawberry hermit crab because of its reddish-orange colours. It is a widespread scavenger across the Indo-Pacific, and wild-caught specimens are traded to hobby aquarists.

<i>Ligia oceanica</i> Species of woodlouse

Ligia oceanica, the sea slater, common sea slater, or sea roach, is a woodlouse, living in the littoral zone—rocky seashores of the European North Sea and Atlantic coastlines.

Epicaridea is a former suborder of isopods, now treated as an infraorder in suborder Cymothoida. They are ectoparasites that inhabit other crustaceans, namely ostracods, copepods, barnacles and malacostracans. Epicarideans are found globally. Epicaridea are generally less well researched than other isopods.

Ceratoserolis is a genus of isopods in the family Serolidae from the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and some Sub-Antarctic Islands. They prefer to live on soft bottoms and range of least between 24 and 950 m (80–3,120 ft) in depth. They are superficially similar to the unrelated, extinct trilobites and reach up to about 8 cm (3.1 in) in length. They were once considered to be part of the genus Serolis and for a long time only Ceratoserolis trilobitoides was recognized. The validity of the other species has been disputed, but there are some morphological and genetic differences between them and C. trilobitoides, and there are indications that additional, currently unrecognized species of Ceratoserolis exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodlouse</span> Crustacean from the polyphyletic suborder Oniscidea

woodlouse is any crustacean belonging to the suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood, and from louse, a parasitic insect, although woodlice are neither parasitic nor insects.

The Microcerberidea are a suborder of isopod crustaceans. They are less than 2 mm (0.079 in) long, and live interstitially. They may be found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and around the coasts of South America, Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and India.

<i>Paracerceis sculpta</i> Species of crustacean

Paracerceis sculpta is a species of marine isopod between 1.3 millimetres (0.05 in) and 10.3 mm (0.41 in) in length. The species lives mainly in the intertidal zone, and is native to the Northeast Pacific from Southern California to Mexico, but has since been introduced to many other countries. Adults are herbivorous and consume algae but juveniles are carnivorous and consume moulting females. They reproduce in sponges but do not feed near them.

<i>Mictyris longicarpus</i> Species of crab

Mictyris longicarpus, the light-blue soldier crab, is a species of crab that lives on sandy beaches from the Bay of Bengal to Australia; with other members of the genus Mictyris, it is "one of the most loved crabs in Australia". Adults are 25 mm (1 in) across, white, with blue on their backs, and hold their claws vertically. They feed on detritus in the sand, leaving rounded pellets of discarded sand behind them. The males may form into large "armies" which traverse the beach at low tide, before the crabs dig into the sand to wait for the next low tide.

<i>Hemilepistus reaumuri</i> Species of woodlouse

Hemilepistus reaumuri is a species of woodlouse that lives in and around the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, "the driest habitat conquered by any species of crustacean". It reaches a length of 22 mm (0.87 in) and a width of up to 12 mm (0.47 in), and has seven pairs of legs which hold its body unusually high off the ground. The species was described in the Description de l'Égypte after the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria of 1798–1801, but was first formally named by Henri Milne-Edwards in 1840 as Porcellio reaumuri. It reached its current scientific name in 1930 after the former subgenus Hemilepistus was raised to the rank of genus.

Chiridotea is a genus of isopod crustaceans in the family Chaetiliidae, containing the following species:

<i>Aega psora</i> Species of crustacean

Aega psora is a species of isopod crustacean that parasitises a number of fish species in the North Atlantic. It is a serious ectoparasite of larger species of fish, particularly when they are injured.

<i>Glyptonotus antarcticus</i> Species of crustacean

Glyptonotus antarcticus is a benthic marine isopod crustacean in the suborder Valvifera. This relatively large isopod is found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. It was first described by James Eights in 1852 and the type locality is the South Shetland Islands.

Aega antarctica is a species of isopod crustacean. It is a temporary ectoparasite of fish, feeding on the fish's blood and then dropping to the seabed to digest its meal over a period of several months. It is found in the seas around Antarctica.

<i>Uromunna sheltoni</i> Species of crustacean

Uromunna sheltoni is a species of isopod first described by Brian Kensley in 1977. U. sheltoni is included in the genus Uromunna and family Munnidae. No subspecies are listed. The species was first collected by Peter Shelton of the University of Cape Town, for whom it is named.

<i>Gastrosaccus spinifer</i> Species of crustacean

Gastrosaccus spinifer is a shrimp-like crustacean in the order Mysida, the opossum shrimps, native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the coasts of Northern and Western Europe.

<i>Anilocra capensis</i> Species of crustacean

Anilocra capensis is a species of parasitic isopod in the family Cymothoidae. It is endemic to southern Africa. The species preferentially attaches itself to the hottentot seabream.

<i>Deto echinata</i> Species of woodlouse

Deto echinata, the horned isopod, is a species of air-breathing isopod, or woodlouse, in the family Detonidae. It inhabits seashores in southern Africa and on some oceanic islands.

References

  1. Rachael A. King and Alison M. Cawood (2007). "A revision of the genus Chiridotea (Isopoda: Chaetiliidae) with species redescriptions and a key". Journal of Crustacean Biology . 27 (1): 121–139. doi: 10.1651/S-2708.1 .
  2. Hugh Griffith & Malcolm Telford (1985). "Morphological adaptations to burrowing in Chiridotea coeca (Crustacea, Isopoda)". The Biological Bulletin . 168 (2): 296–311. JSTOR   1541242.
  3. J. C. Britton & Brian Morton (1993). "Are there obligate marine scavengers?". In Brian Morton (ed.). The Marine Biology of the South China Sea: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Marine Biology of Hong Kong and the South China Sea, Hong Kong, 28 October-3 November 1990. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 357–392. ISBN   978-962-209-355-3.

Further reading