AGUIDETOTHECOASTALISOPODSOFCALIFORNIA.doc

A GUIDE TO THE COASTAL ISOPODS OF CALIFORNIA Richard C. Brusca, Vania R. Coelho, Stefano Taiti This file is available online at: /notes/?note_id=3004 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 o?stegites (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. Isopods can be distinguished from other peracarids, and crustaceans in general, by the following combination of characteristics: (1) body usually flattened (except in Anthuridea and Phreatoicidea); (2) head (cephalon) compact, with unstalked compound eyes, two pairs of antennae (first pair minute in Oniscidea), and mouthparts comprising a pair of mandibles, two pairs of maxillae (maxillules and maxillae), and one pair of maxillipeds; (3) a long thorax of eight thoracomeres, the first (and also the second in Gnathiidea) fused with the head and bearing the maxillipeds, the remaining seven (called pereonites) being free and collectively comprising a body division called the pereon; (4) seven pairs of uniramous legs, or pereopods, all more or less alike (hence, “iso-pod”), except gnathiids which