Loxothylacus Spinulosus (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Rhizocephala) Parasitising Pilumnopeus Serratifrons (Decapoda: Pilumnidae) in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia
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Proceedings of the 13th International Marine Biological Workshop The Marine Fauna and Flora of Moreton Bay, Queensland Volume 54, Part 1 Editors: Peter J.F. Davie & Julie A. Phillips Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 54(1) © The State of Queensland (Queensland Museum) PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone 06 7 3840 7555 Fax 06 7 3846 1226 Email [email protected] Website www.qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 0079-8835 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Editor in Chief. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed at the Queensland Museum web site http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/About+Us/Publications/Memoirs+of+the+Queensland+Museum A Queensland Government Project Typeset at the Queensland Museum Loxothylacus spinulosus (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Rhizocephala) parasitising Pilumnopeus serratifrons (Decapoda: Pilumnidae) in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia Brian MORTON Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. Email: [email protected] Jrrgen LÜTZEN Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen. Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen q, Denmark. Email: [email protected] Citation: Morton, B. & Lützen, J. 2008 12 01. Loxothylacus spinulosus (Crustacea: Cirripedia: Rhizocephala) parasitising Pilumnopeus serratifrons (Decapoda: Pilumnidae) in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. In, Davie, P.J.F. & Phillips, J.A. (Eds), Proceedings of the Thirteenth Inter national Marine Biological Workshop, The Marine Fauna and Flora of Moreton Bay, Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum — Nature 54(1): 257–260. Brisbane. ISSN 0079–8835. ABSTRACT Seventy-eight individuals of the cryptic pilumnid crab Pilumnopeus serratifrons inhabiting galleries in clumps of mussels (Trichomya hirsutus) (Mytilidae) were collected from inter - tidal sea grass beds seaward of Myora Springs, Moreton Bay, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia. Of the 78 crab individuals, five of the 45 males (11.1%) and 14 of the 33 females (42.4%) were parasitised by the rhizocephalan Loxothylacus spinulosus. No gravid females were parasitised, but the parasite appeared to restrict the size range of such females to carapace widths of between 7.5–10.0 mm. No gravid female > 10.0 mm carapace width was identified, all such individuals presumably being castrated by L. spinulosus. One male and four females had two parasite externas. q Pilumnopeus serratifrons, parasitised, rhizocephalan, Loxothylacus spinulosus, Moreton Bay, Australia. The biology of rhizocephalan barnacles has enter the young (virgin) externa that gives rise been reviewed by Hreg & Lützen (1995). Para- to a fertilised externa with the eggs brooded sitic rhizocephalans have a planktonic larval inside it. Larvae will eventually be released via phase that normally involves several naupliar the externa. stages and a cyprid settling stage. Adults are There are few records of species of rhizo - internal parasites of mainly marine shrimps and cephalans parasitising decapod crustaceans in crabs. The rhizocephalan life cycle is hence both Australian waters. In Moreton Bay, however, complex and specialised such that the ecologies the commercial sand crab Portunus pelagicus of host and parasite are highly correlated. (Linnaeus, 1758) is parasitised by Sacculina gran- Rhizocephalan larvae are dioecious, males ifera Boschma, 1973, and has thus received partic- being often smaller than females. The life cycle ular attention (Phillips & Cannon 1978; Bishop begins with the female cyprid invading a & Cannon 1979; Weng 1987; Shields 1992; Shields crustacean host and developing into a parasite & Wood 1993; Sumpton et al. 1994; Gaddes & with an internal root system (interna) that Sumpton, 2004). Phillips (1978), however, des- grows inside it and absorbs nutrients. Once the cri bed three new species of rhizocephalan from interna matures, it will develop a reproductive Moreton Bay. These were Heterosaccus lunatus, body (externa) outside the crab through the H. multilacinensis and Sacculina amplituba parasit- region of the abdomen. Male cyprids will then ising the portunid crabs Charybdis callianassa Memoirs of the Queensland Museum — Nature 2008 54(1) www.qm.qld.gov.au 257 Morton & Lützen (Herbst, 1801), Charybdis truncata (Fabricius, 1798) curved male receptacles have their terminal sperm - and Matuta granulosa Miers, 1877, respectively. atogenic components included within the ovary. Knuckey et al. (1995) recorded Loxothylacus ihlei Also, as may often occur in kentrogonid rhizo - (Boschma, 1949) infecting the commercial por - cephalans, only one of the receptacles was prod - tunid mud crab Scylla serrata (ForskDl, 1775) in ucing semen. northern Australia, but while the host is com - The external mantle cuticles of the present mon in Moreton Bay, the parasite appears to be specimens were scattered with spiny excres - restricted to tropical waters. The present study cences (5–6 mm), as described for Loxothylacus concerns Loxothylacus spinulosa Boschma, 1928, spinulosus by Boschma (1933: fig. 10). The pres- parasitising the pilumnid crab Pilum nopeus ence of such relatively short excrescences is char - serratifrons (Kinahan, 1856). acteristic of L. spinulosus (and L. omissus Bos chma, 1957). Most other species of the genus have MATERIAL AND METHODS longer structures often arranged in bun dles, From 7–25 February 2005, visits were made although three species, L. scaber (Boschma, 1931), during low tide periods to the sea grass (Zostera L. bicorniger Boschma, 1959, and L. engeli Bosch ma, capricorni, Halodule uninervis and Halophila ovalis) 1968, all have a smooth (or nearly so) external beds down-shore from the mangrove-fringe at cuticle (Boschma 1968). Both sectioned rhizo - Myora Springs on the sheltered northwest coast cephalans correspond in all essential characters of North Stradbroke Island. The principle to the two specimens of L. spinulosus described research aim was to study a sympatric pair of by Boschma (1928, 1957). galeommatid bivalves (Varotoga spp.) living Loxothylacus spinulosus is known only from commensally within the galleries made by the eastern Australian waters. The only two earlier crab Pilumnopeus serratifrons in clumps of the records are also from Pilumnopeus serratifrons: mussel Trichomya hirsutus (Lamarck, 1819), that one from Mosman, Sydney, New South Wales, here dot the central regions of the muddy, sea the other from an unknown locality (Boschma grass dominated, intertidal. This research has 1957). Two specimens originally identified as L. been separately reported upon by Morton (2008). spinulosus were described from Hong Kong as Pilumnopeus serratifrons was, however, notic - infecting Glabropilumnus seminudus (Miers, 1884) eably parasitised by a rhizocephalan cirripede (Boschma 1955), but subsequently described as herein identified as Loxothylacus spinulosus. The a separate species, L. omissus Boschma, 1957. sex of each crab was recorded and carapace widths measured to the nearest 0.5 mm using BIOLOGY vernier calipers. The presence of either a crab A total of 78 individuals of Pilumnopeus serrati- egg mass or the externa of L. spinulosus was also frons was collected. Of these, five of the 45 males noted. (11.1%) and 14 of the 33 females (42.4%) were The identification of rhizocephalan species is parasitised by Loxothylacus spinulosus. None of difficult and often relies upon identification of the nine gravid females (27.3%) was parasitised. the host, as many are considered to be host- The mean carapace widths of parasitised male specific, as well as upon microscopic investig - and female individuals of P. serratifrons were ation of histological sections through the externa. 10.0 mm and 10.3 mm respectively, as opposed Accordingly, two externae were removed from to the mean widths of uninfected conspecifics their hosts, sectioned longitudinally at 8 mm, that were 5.6 mm and 8.3 mm respectively. Of and stained with Ehrlich’s haematoxylin and the five parasitised males, four had one parasite eosin. and one had two. Of the 14 parasitised females, 10 had one parasite and four had two (Table 1). RESULTS Gravid females were, however, restricted to a TAXONOMIC REMARKS carapace width size range of between 7.5–10.0 Loxothylacus is characterised by having the mm, all individuals of greater widths being stalk and mesentery inserted at different places parasitised and reproductively sterile, presumably on the mantle (Boschma 1933: fig. 9), and the as a consequence of the rhizocephalan infection. 258 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum — Nature 2008 54(1) New Rhizocephala record for Moreton Bay Table 1. The numbers of individuals of each sex of Pilumnopeus serratifrons from the shore at Myora Springs, Moreton Bay, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, infected with Loxothylacus spinulosus. Mean Mean width Mean width Range in Num- carapace of unparasit- of parasitised Numbers of Loxothy- carapace ber width ised individ- individuals lacus (with 1 or 2) + % width (mm) (mm) uals (mm) (mm) Males 45 7.3 3.5–14.5 5.6 10.0 5 (4 or 1) + 8.9 Females 33 9.2 5.5–14.0 8.3 10.3 14 (10 or 4) + 42.4 Gravid 9 8.7 7.5–10.0 – – – females DISCUSSION range of Australia. In contrast, Goddard et al.