| Sylon hippolytes | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Thecostraca |
| Subclass: | Cirripedia |
| Order: | Akentrogonida |
| Family: | Clistosaccidae |
| Genus: | Sylon |
| Species: | S. hippolytes |
| Binomial name | |
| Sylon hippolytes M. Sars, 1870 [1] | |
Sylon hippolytes is a castrating parasite that infects the shrimp Pandalina brevirostris .
The adult female parasite consists of a body that can be differentiated into two distinct regions: a sac-like structure containing the reproductive organs (the externa), and a trophic, root like system situated inside the hosts body (the interna). It forms an elongated, sac-like growth on the abdomen of several shrimp species, measuring up to 1.2 centimeters in diameter. S. hippolytes castrates infected female shrimp by absorbing the reproductive energy of the host. Many other Rhizocephalan have the same castrating characteristic. The presence of the parasite will eventually come to pass after it dies, and the castrating mechanism is reversed for the host.
Sylon hippolytes typically lives up to a maximum of one year.
Sylon hippolytes are r-strategists. An externa can only produce offspring once during its lifetime. Therefore, the parasite utilizes an enormous amount of energy towards producing as many eggs as possible for reproduction. The size of the parasitic sac has proportional relationship with the size of its host. When S. hippolytes infect smaller hosts, the number of eggs produced can range from 1400 to 22000. As expected, when the parasite infects larger hosts, the range of eggs is larger, ranging from 19000 to one million eggs. This process requires a male cypris larva to penetrate the integument of the externa and deposit spermatogonia cells into the receptacles of the female externa. [2]
Arctic, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, North Pacific, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan, North Atlantic, Iceland, Greenland, Shetland Islands, Spitzbergen
Acanthocephala is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to pierce and hold the gut wall of its host. Acanthocephalans have complex life cycles, involving at least two hosts, which may include invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals. About 1420 species have been described.
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Trematoda is a class within the phylum Platyhelminthes. It includes two groups of parasitic flatworms, known as flukes.
Brood parasites are organisms that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, using brood mimicry, for example by having eggs that resemble the host's.
Monogeneans are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive structures.
Rhizocephala are derived barnacles that parasitise mostly decapod crustaceans, but can also infest Peracarida, mantis shrimps and thoracican barnacles, and are found from the deep ocean to freshwater. Together with their sister groups Thoracica and Acrothoracica, they make up the subclass Cirripedia. Their body plan is uniquely reduced in an extreme adaptation to their parasitic lifestyle, and makes their relationship to other barnacles unrecognisable in the adult form. The name Rhizocephala derives from the Ancient Greek roots ῥίζα and κεφαλή, describing the adult female, which mostly consists of a network of thread-like extensions penetrating the body of the host.
Microphallus is a genus of parasitic trematodes (flukes) in the family Microphallidae. The Greek name means "tiny penis".
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Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of many similar units known as proglottids - essentially packages of eggs which are regularly shed into the environment to infect other organisms. Species of the other subclass, Cestodaria, are mainly fish parasites.
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Lernaeocera branchialis, sometimes called cod worm, is a parasite of marine fish, found mainly in the North Atlantic. It is a marine copepod which starts life as a small pelagic crustacean larva. It is among the largest of copepods, ranging in size from 2 to 3 millimetres when it matures as a copepodid larva to more than 40 mm as a sessile adult.
Flamingolepis liguloides is a parasitic tapeworm of the Cestoda class. There are several tapeworms that are found to infect the Artemia spp.; however, F. liguloides is the most prevalent species of infectious tapeworm among the Artemia spp. F. liguloides infects brine shrimp (Artemia) as the intermediate host and flamingos as the definitive host. Effects of the tapeworm in flamingos is unclear, though researchers hypothesize that a high parasitemia could potentially be deadly to the host. The parasite appears to affect the Artemia spp. as it alters the behavior and color of its host.
Loxothylacus panopaei is a species of barnacle in the family Sacculinidae. It is native to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. It is a parasitic castrator of small mud crabs in the family Panopeidae, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
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