68 CRUSTACEA — -COPEPODA 



possess a true siphon in which the styliform mandifeles work. The 

 siphon is formed by the upper and lower lips, which are produced 

 into a tube with three longitudinal ridges ; in the outer grooves 

 are the mandibles, while the inner groove forms the sucking siphon 

 (see transverse section, Fig. 36). In Ratania, however, there is 

 no siphon. The first antennae possess a great number of joints, 

 and may be geniculated in the male (Cancerilla). The members 

 .--.::.'-::;.■.•■.. of this family live as ectoparasites on various 

 /■/■' ■■■.>. species of Echinoderms, Sponges, and As- 



jifj '^'■^i'""i'i"i-' cidians, but they frequently change their 



hosts, and it appears that one and the same 

 species may indifferently suck the juices of 

 FiQ. 36. — Diagrammatic ^ various animals, and even of Algae. 



transver.se section •' ° 



through the distal part Gancerilla tuhulata, however, appears to live 

 of the siphon of iJA2/«- , ^^^ ^-^^ Brittle starfish, Amphiura 



turn (Asterocheridae). sqiCCtinCitct. 



ffieircM^r' ^^''"^ Fam. 7. Dichelestiidae.— The males and 

 females are similarly parasitic, and the body 

 in both is highly deformed, the segmentation being suppressed 

 and tlie thoracic limbs being produced into formless fleshy lobes ; 

 they are placed among the Ampharthrandria owing to sexual 

 differences in the form of the first antennae. There is a well- 

 developed siphon in which the mandibular stylets work, except 

 in Lamproglena, parasitic on the gills of Cyprinoid fishes ; the 

 succeeding mouth-parts are prehensile. 



The majority of the species are parasitic on the gills of various 

 fish (Dichelestium on the Sturgeon, Zernanthropus ^ on Labrax 

 lupus, Serranus' scriha, etc.), but Steuer^ has recently described a 

 Dichelestiid {Mytilicola) from the gut of Mytilus galloprovincialis 

 off Trieste. This animal and Lernanthropus are unique among 

 Crustacea through the possession of a completely closed blood- 

 vascular system which contains a red fluid ; the older observers 

 believed this fluid to contain haemoglobin, but Steuer, as the 

 result of careful analysis, denies this. The parasite on the gills 

 of the Lobster, Nicothoe astaci, possibly belongs here. 



The inclusion of Nicothoe and the Dichelestiidae among the 

 Ampharthrandria rests on a somewhat slender basis ; this basis 

 is afforded by the fact that none of the parasitic Isokerandria 

 have more than seven joints in the first antennae, whereas 



1 Arb. Zool. Inst. Wim, ii. 1879, p. 268. 2 7jj-^_ ^^^ _ \QOb, p. 1. 



