Meeting Abstract

41.1  Monday, Jan. 5  A First Look at the Phylogeny of the Entoniscidae SHIELDS, Jeffrey D.*; MILLER, Terrence L.; BOYKO, Christopher B.; VIMS; VIMS; Molloy College, NY jeff@vims.edu

The Entoniscidae are a bizarre group of parasitic Isopoda that live internally within their decapod hosts. They live internally in the hemocoels of their hosts and apparently grow there without molting. Because of their endoparasitism, the entoniscids are cryptic species with only 37 species described in 16 genera. The family exhibits high host specificity, typically at the host species level but also at the host genus and family level. Females of the species have few defining characters but males and larval stages often possess distintictive characters on which to base an initial examination of their phylogeny. We analyzed the phylogeny of the Entoniscidae using female and male characters, and juvenile characters where known. Outgroups consisted of members of the Bopyridae and the Dajidae. The phylogenetic analysis also included the bopyrid genus Entophilus as it is the only endoparasitic bopyrid and may align more closely with the Entoniscidae.