A shrimp parassite

Posted by Francesco on Nov 29, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments

Sometimes, a good macro photo reveals many things very difficult to see while you’re diving. An example is this photo of the very common shrimp Periclimenes brevicarpalis inside an host anemone. Only when I saw the photo on my monitor I noticed this small isopode parasite living on the shrimp.

This isopode parasite belong to the Bopyridae family: the female is bigger of the male, which lives inside the gill chamber. This infection will lead to the paralysis of the host.