Bopyrella harmopleon Bowman, 1956

Romero Rodríguez, Jesús & Álvarez, Fernando, 2021, New hosts and distribution records for bopyrid isopods parasitising alpheid shrimps (Decapoda, Alpheidae) in the SW Gulf of Mexico and Mexican Caribbean, Journal of Natural History 54 (35 - 36), pp. 2219-2248 : 2221-2227

Bopyrella harmopleon Bowman, 1956

Figures 1 (a), 2(a), 3; Tables 1 and 2

Bopyrella harmopleon Bowman, 1956: 1–3 , fig. 1 [type-locality Gran Roque, Venezuela, parasitising Synalpheus brevicarpus , S. fritzmuelleri and S. hemphilli ]. – Danforth, 1963: 7. – Lemos de Castro, 1965: 283, figs. 1–5 [Ilha São Sebatião, São Paulo, Brazil, parasitising Synalpheus sp. ]. – Şadoğlu, 1969: 197. – Schultz, 1969: 332, fig. 534b. – Danforth, 1970: 9, 43, 59, 151, fig. 6 a-c. – Markham, 1974: 193, 315, 321–322. – Christoffersen, 1979: 334 [Praia do Segredo, São Paulo, Brazil, parasitising S. brevicarpus ]. – Bourdon, 1980: 187, 227, 229, 230, table 5. – Duarte and Morgado, 1983: 3, 5, 7, 11, fig. 9 [Unspecified locality, Brazil, parasitising S. brevicarpus ]. – Sassaman et al. 1984: 651. – Markham, 1985: 66, 129. – Markham, 1988: 40, 41, 57 table 1 [Punta Allen, Bahía de la Ascensión, Quintana Roo, Mexico, parasitising S. fritzmuelleri ]. – Kensley and Schotte, 1989: 110, table 2. – Salazar-Vallejo and Leija- Tristan, 1990: appendix 1. – Markham and Donath-Hernández, 1990: 243. – Markham et al. 1990: 416. – Brasil-Lima, 1998: 638. – Román-Contreras, 2008: 105 table 2. – Williams and Boyko, 2012: fig. 1a. – An et al. 2015: 32, 34 in key. – Brito-Mata et al. 2017: 116. – Romero-Rodríguez and Martínez-Mayén, 2017: 119. – Romero-Rodríguez and Martínez-Mayén, 2018: 1191, table 2. – Williams and Williams, 2019: 233.

Material examined

One adult female, one male ( CNCR 34972 ) parasitising one ovigerous female of Synalpheus curacaoensis Schmitt, 1924 ( CNCR 8329 ), J . A . Duarte det . host; southern shore of Isla Lobos , Veracruz, Mexico (21º28 ʹ 12.5”N, 97º13 ʹ 34.0”W); P . Flores, M. D. Valle and J . L. Villalobos colls .; 17 June 1987. One ovigerous female, one male (YUC-CC-255- 11-006553) parasitising one female of Synalpheus hemphilli Coutière, 1909 ( YUC-CC -255-11-002961), in sponge Callyspongia vaginalis (Lamarck, 1814) , J . A . Duarte det . host; Cayo Arcas , Campeche, Mexico (20º12 ʹ 41.14”N, 91º58 ʹ 42.12”W); J . A . Duarte coll.; 27 April 2016. One adult female (YUC-CC-255-11-006554) parasitising one female of S . hemphilli (YUC-CC-255-11-003345), in sponge C. vaginalis, A. M. Pérez-Botello det. host; Cayo Arcas , Campeche, Mexico (20º12 ʹ 15.8”N, 91º57 ʹ 31.1”W), A . M . Pérez-Botello coll.; 25 August 2016.

Distribution

From Tamiahua, Veracruz, to Cayo Arcas, Campeche (present study) and Bahía de la Ascención, Quintana Roo, Mexico to São Paulo, Brazil ( Markham 1985, 1988).

Remarks

The morphological traits of the females examined agree well with the characteristics mentioned by Bowman (1956) for B. harmopleon . The frontal lamina of the head in all females was protruded slightly from the lateral margin but solely on the short side of the body, no variation was observed on its shape or size according to the host, as was noted by Bowman (1956). The head is fused with the first pereomere medially but separated laterally, on the short side of body this separation produce a pronounced notch. Bowman (1956) noted that pereomeres 2 to 4 had narrow coxal plates on both sides of the body, but in the examined females pereomeres 1 to 4 had narrow coxal plates, barely developed dorsolateral bosses and tergal projections, all these traits were most conspicuous on the longer side of the body ( Figure 1 (a)). The shape of the first pair of oostegites ( Figure 3 (a, b)) matches those described by Bowman (1956) and Markham (1985) but these authors did not state the outline of the inner ridge, which on the females examined is slightly fleshy with some small digitations on its middle portion ( Figure 3 (b)). The barbula has two lateral projections on each side, the external one wider than internal, and the medial margin is provided with a notch on its middle portion ( Figure 3 (c)), this feature had not been previously described or illustrated.

The pleomeres are clearly separated along the larger side of the body, whereas just traces of pleomeral separation are seen in the opposite side ( Figure 1 (a)). The pleopods are oval-shaped and differs in size, the first two pairs are the largest then decreasing in size posteriorly, those on the larger side of the body are slightly bigger relative to those in the shorter side ( Figure 3 (d)).

The males examined also agree with the characteristics proposed for B. harmopleon . The head is fused medially to the first pereomere but is separated laterally ( Figure 2 (a)). The antennules and antennae are composed by three and two articles, respectively, both with distal setae. The antennae are larger than antennules and reach the head’s distal margin ( Figure 3 (e)). All pereomeres are distinctly separated laterally and with rounded edges ( Figure 2 (a)) as was noted by Bowman (1956) and Markham (1985), but they vary in size with the maximum width at pereomere 3 or 4 and the minimum width at pereomere 7. Bowman (1956) noted that the number of pleomeres with clear lateral separation is variable, this agrees with the examined males: one (CNCR 34972) had three and the second one (YUC-CC-255-11-006553) had four distinct pleomeres; in both cases the first pereomere was larger than the last one. The remaining pleomeres are fused to form a triangular plate with rounded edges ( Figure 2 (a)).

The parasitised female of S. curacaoensis was 5.33 mm LC and carried 37 larvae on its abdomen, which had a mean length and width of 0.91 ± 0.04 and 0.48 ± 0.05 mm, respectively. The mean size of the S. hemphilli hosts (n = 2) was 7.09 ± 1.72 mm CL (range 5.87–8.30 mm). Bopyrella harmopleon parasitised only females of both host species, and was attached within the host’s right branchial chamber (n = 2) more than in the left one (n = 1). The female and male sizes of B. harmopleon are indicated in Table 1; and the fecundity, embryo size and volume of this parasite are shown in Table 2.

Bopyrella harmopleon has been reported parasitising the branchial chamber of Synalpheus brevicarpus ( Herrick, 1891) , Synalpheus fritzmuelleri Coutière, 1909 , Synalpheus minus ( Say, 1818) and S. hemphilli ; here we present the first record on S. curacaoensis , which had not been recorded as host of any bopyrid, and extend the geographical range of B. harmopleon into the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, its previous northern limit was located in the Mexican Caribbean coast.

Figures

Figure 1. Bopyrid females parasitising Alpheus and Synalpheus shrimps at the SW Gulf of Mexico and Mexican Caribbean. a) Bopyrella harmopleon Bowman, 1956, YUC-CC-255-11-006553; b) Bopyrione synalphei Bourdon and Markham, 1980, YUC-CC-255-11-006555; c) Capitetragonia alphei (Richardson, 1900), CNCR 34973; d) Parabopyrella lata (Nierstraz and Brender à Brandis, 1929), CNCR 34974; e) Parabopyrella mortenseni (Nierstraz and Brender à Brandis, 1929), CNCR 34975; f) Eophrixus subcaudalis (Hay, 1917), CNCR 5254. Scale bar = 1.0 mm.

Figure 2. Bopyrid males parasitising Alpheus and Synalpheus shrimps at the SW Gulf of Mexico and Mexican Caribbean. a) Bopyrella harmopleon Bowman, 1956, YUC-CC-255-11-006553; b) Bopyrione synalphei Bourdon and Markham, 1980, YUC-CC-255-11-006556; c) Capitetragonia alphei (Richardson, 1900), CNCR 34973; d) Parabopyrella mortenseni (Nierstraz and Brender à Brandis, 1929), CNCR 34975; e) Eophrixus subcaudalis (Hay, 1917), CNCR 5254. Scale bar = 0.5 mm in a-b; 1.0 mm in c-e.

Figure 3. Bopyrella harmopleon Bowman, 1956, YUC-CC-255-11-006553. a) first oostegite, external view; b) first oostegite, internal view; c) barbula; d) female pleon, ventral view; e) antenna and antennule of male. Scale bar = 0.5 mm in a-d; 0.1 mm in e.