Article
Guide to the Coastal Marine Isopods of California
Tree of Life Web Project
(2001)
Abstract
The order Isopoda is one of nine orders in the crustacean superorder Peracarida. Peracarids are the "marsupial crustaceans," distinguished from the three other eumalacostracan superorders (Hoplocarida, Syncarida, Eucarida) by the following combination of characters: embryos brooded by females in a marsupium constructed by specialized thoracic coxal endites called oöstegites (except in Thermosbaenacea, which carry broods beneath the carapace); absence of caudal rami on the telson; maxilliped basis produced into an anteriorly directed bladelike endite; mandible with an articulated accessory process in adults, between the molar and incisor processes (the lacinia mobilis); carapace, when present, not fused with posterior pereonites and usually reduced in size; and, in most, young hatching as mancas, a pre-juvenile stage lacking the last pair of thoracopods. All peracarids undergo direct development with brooding, hence true larval forms do not occur in this superorder. About 25,000 species of peracarids have been described.
Keywords
- isopods,
- California
Disciplines
Publication Date
2001
Citation Information
Richard Brusca, Vânia R. Coelho and Stefano Taiti. "Guide to the Coastal Marine Isopods of California" Tree of Life Web Project (2001) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/vania-coelho/4/
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