On the bopyrid from the Colombian Pacific Coast

LAZARUS-AGUDELO, J.F.; ROCCATAGLIATA, D.

Coquimbo, Chile.

Congreso; The Crustacean Society Mid-Year Meeting; 2007

Universidad Católica del Norte

During a recent survey on the Porcellanidae from the Buenaventura and Málaga Bays (Pacific coast of Colombia), 12 species of this family infested by isopod bopyrids were captured. These crabs were collected on natural or artificial hard substrates, mainly from October 2004 to November 2005. The species recorded and the number of specimens infested are: Petrolisthes edwardsii (de Saussure, 1853) (44); Petrolisthes agassizii Faxon, 1893 (34); Pachycheles panamensis Faxon, 1893 (24); Petrolistes  haigae (Chace, 1962) (20); Pisidia magdalenensis (Glassell, 1936) (5); Petrolisthes zacae Haig, 1968 (3); Pachycheles crassus (A. Milne Edwards, 1869) (2); Megalobrachium festai (Nobili, 1901) (2); Neopisosoma bicapillatum Haig, 1960 (1); Neopisosoma mexicanum (Streets, 1871) (1); Pachycheles calculosus Haig, 1960 (1); Petrolisthes ortmanni Nobili, 1901 (1). Besides, two other decapod species harbouring bopyrids on their gill chambers were also collected in this area: five grapsoid crab Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758) and a caridean shrimp of the genus Synalpheus sp. Lastly, an additional infested porcellanid crab, Pachycheles biocellatus (Lockington, 1878), was collected in Malpelo Island. From the entire west coast of South America only a few infested decapods have been recorded so far. Although there is reason to believe that there are actually fewer bopyrids along the western South American coast than in other regions, the astonishing number of parasitized decapods herein reported (15 species) strongly suggests that this fauna is underestimated. This research was partially supported by COLCIENCIAS and the Universidad del Valle (Project p-2006-0031).