ORDER DENDROGASTRIDA GRYGIER, 1987

Diagnosis: Soft-walled carapace partly fused and enlarged in females; females vary from plesiomorphic morphology to being extremely reduced; antennules with four or five segments, subchelate either present at some stage of development or reduced to vestigial; proximal sensory process of terminal antennular segment reduced to separate aesthetasc and seta. Mandibles and maxillules, if present, with reduced armament. Thoracopods leaf-like, biramous or uniramous, without distinct ramal segments, or absent. Meso- or endoparasites of echinoderms.