''Nicothoe tumulosa'' is a species of

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

parasitic on the gills of the glypheoid lobster ''

Neoglyphea inopinata ''Neoglyphea inopinata'' is a species of glypheoid lobster, a group thought long extinct before ''Neoglyphea'' was discovered. It is a lobster-like animal, up to around in length, although without claws. It is only known from 17 specimens, cau ...

''. It was described as a new species in 1976 by Roger F. Cressey. It can be differentiated from related species by the

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

l formula, and the trunk's covering of small bumps, which give the species its name.

Discovery

A damaged decapod was collected in 1908 by the USFC ''Albatross'' in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It was deposited in the

United States National Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, where it remained unidentified until

Michèle de Saint Laurent Michèle de Saint Laurent (December 9, 1926 – July 11, 2003) was a French carcinologist. She spent most of her career at the ' in Paris, working on the systematics of Decapoda, decapod crustaceans; her major contributions were to hermit crabs an ...

examined it in 1975. Her colleague

Jacques Forest Jacques Forest (14 June 1920 – 16 February 2012) was a French carcinologist. Biography Born in Créteil on 14 June 1920, Jacques Forest grew up in Maubeuge. He served in the army for a year during the Second World War, and went on to study a ...

recognised that it represented the first known extant species of the infraorder

Glypheidea Glypheidea is an infraorder of lobster-like decapod crustaceans, comprising a number of fossil forms and the two extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving lit ...

, which was thought to have been extinct since the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

, a conclusion endorsed by

Fenner A. Chace, Jr. Fenner Albert Chace Jr. (October 5, 1908 – May 30, 2004) was an American list of carcinologists, carcinologist. Life Fenner Albert Chace Jr. was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, and received his doctorate in 1 ...

and

Raymond B. Manning Raymond Brendan Manning (October 11, 1934 – January 18, 2000) was an American carcinologist, specialising in alpha taxonomy and mantis shrimp. Biography Raymond Manning was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934, but moved almost immediately with hi ...

. Parasitic copepods were discovered on the gills of the ''Neoglyphea'' specimen, and were described in a 1976 paper by Roger F. Cressey. Five specimens were examined, all female, and all but one adults. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

' is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

meaning "full of mounds", referring to the surface texture of the animal's back. ''N. tumulosa'' is the only species in the genus to parasitise animals other than clawed lobsters of the family

Nephropidae Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

(''

Homarus gammarus ''Homarus gammarus'', known as the European lobster or common lobster, is a species of lobster, clawed lobster from the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Black Sea. It is closely related to the American lobster, ''H.&nbs ...

'' and species of ''

Metanephrops ''Metanephrops'' is a genus of lobsters, commonly known as scampi. Important species for fishery include '' Metanephrops australiensis'' (Australian scampi) and ''Metanephrops challengeri'' (New Zealand scampi). It differs from other lobsters su ...

'').

Description

The body of ''Nicothoe tumulosa'' is up to long, and up to wide. The preserved specimens are purple in colour. Most of the dorsal aspect is covered by three large plates; remaining areas of the trunk are covered with "small sclerotised bumps". ''N. tumulosa'' differs from other related species by the numbers of

e on its legs, and by the surface texture of the trunk. Females bear large egg sacs, similar to those in other copepod species, and each containing 50–60 eggs; the males are unknown.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7030539 Siphonostomatoida Parasites of crustaceans Crustaceans described in 1976