Bradophilidae Marchenkov, 2002

Boxshall, Geoff A., O’Reilly, Myles, Sikorski, Andrey & Summerfield, Rebecca, 2019, Mesoparasitic copepods (Copepoda: Cyclopoida) associated with polychaete worms in European seas, Zootaxa 4579 (1), pp. 1-69 : 5

Family Bradophilidae Marchenkov, 2002

The genus Bradophila Levinsen, 1878 was originally described by Levinsen (1878) but over 120 years later, it was Marchenkov (1999) who first suggested that it belonged in a separate family and later he formally established the family ( Marchenkov 2002). The genus and family have remained monotypic until recently, although Boxshall & Halsey (2004) suggested a possible relationship with the poorly known Trophonophila bradii M’Intosh, 1885 , which also occurs on a flabelligerid polychaete host, taken in deep water to the south of Australia (M’Intosh 1885). Huys (2016) re-examined the holotype female of T. bradii and confirmed that this genus is a member of the Bradophilidae . Huys (2016) also considered that the name of the species should be changed to T. bradyi as M’Intosh (1885) explicitly named the species after George Stewardson Brady. However, since the original spelling given by M’Intosh ( bradii ) clearly constitutes an attempt at the latinization of Brady’s name, we retain the original spelling in accord with ICZN Art. 32.5.1, which states that incorrect latinization is not to be considered an inadvertent error.

The globular and limbless ectosoma of adult female Bradophila resembles that of females of the family Herpyllobiidae , but these two families differ markedly in the structure of the males: Bradophila males have welldeveloped, prehensile antennae which are used to attach to the ectosoma of the female, plus recognizable antennules, mandibles, maxillules, maxillae, and maxillipeds ( Marchenkov 2002; Huys 2016). In contrast, male herpyllobiids lack all cephalothoracic appendages except for males of Gottoniella López-González, Bresciani & Conradi, 2006 , which possess a pair of 3-segmented subchelate limbs, identified as probably the maxillipeds by López-González et al. (2006), and males of Eurysilenium which possess a pair of stylet-like structures of uncertain affinity in the oral region ( Lützen 1964a).