210 BOPYRID®. 
Fam.—BOPYRID. 
Tuts family (corresponding with the section Epicarides 
of Latreille, and the Isopodes sedentaires of Milne Ed- 
wards), although but of small extent, as to the number of 
the species of which it is composed, exhibits some of 
the most remarkable modifications of structure amongst 
its different members, whilst the characters of the group 
render it a very distinct one amongst the families of 
which the order is composed. So far as hitherto ascer- 
tained, the species are entirely parasitic upon the bodies 
of other crustaceous animals, especially those of the 
shrimp family and hermit crabs; species also of the 
genera Galathea, Gebia, Gelasimus, and even of Mysis, 
have been found to be infested by them. 
The body, particularly of the female, is in most of the 
species of a much less firm consistence than in the 
majority of the order and in their full-grown condition, 
there is a marvellous difference in the size of the two 
sexes, the females being very large, ovate, or nearly cir- 
cular in form, with the segments very indistinct, whilst 
the males are very diminutive and elongated, with the 
segments of the body quite distinct.* 
In both sexes the antennz are very short, and more or 
less rudimentary, consisting of only two or three joints 
in the Bopyri, but with a more distinctly articulated 
flagellum in some of the Phryzxi, The mouth is very 
rudimental, consisting in the female and probably in the 
* In this respect these insects offer a marked analogy to the family Coccidee 
amongst hexapod insects. The female Cocci gradually lose their locomotive 
organs and become inert animal masses, capable only of suction and deposi- 
tion of eggs, with which the body seems entirely filled. 
