First report of pigmentation dystrophy in terrestrial isopods, Atlantoscia floridana (van Name) (Isopoda, Oniscidea), induced by larval acanthocephalans

Abstract

The observation of pigmentation alteration in isopod crustaceans induced by acanthocephalans, known as pigmentation dystrophy, has been documented in North America in species of the aquatic genera Asellus Geoffroy, 1764, Lirceus Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1820, and Caecidotea Packard, 1871, and in Europe, in Asellus. Recently, three depigmented specimens of Atlantoscia floridana (van Name, 1940), a terrestrial isopod, occurring from Florida, USA to northern Argentina were found showing pigmentation dystrophy and harboring larval acanthocephalans. Photographic documentation of live and preserved, infected isopods is presented. Morphometric data and photomicrographs of the male, unencysted cystacanth specimen which allowed its placement in the genus Centrorhynchus Lühe, 1911 are presented. This is the first record of the phenomenon of pigmentation dystrophy in terrestrial isopod crustaceans, the first record of A. floridana infected by an acanthocephalan and the first record of a species of Centrorhynchus in a terrestrial isopod