- Chiridotea coeca
-
Caecidotea coeca Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Crustacea Class: Malacostraca Order: Isopoda Family: Chaetiliidae Genus: Chiridotea Species: C. coeca Binomial name Chiridotea coeca
(Say, 1818)Synonyms [1] - Idotea coeca Say, 1818
- Chiridotea nigrescens Wigley, 1961
The sand isopod, Chiridotea coeca, is a species of isopod crustacean found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from Nova Scotia to Florida.
Characteristics
Adult sand isopods are horizontally flattened.[2] The thorax is almost round from above and the long, robust legs with large setae. The abdomen is short and pointed. Sand isopods reach 15 mm (0.59 in) long and 7 mm (0.28 in) wide. They use the last pair of legs to dig tunnels in sand. When removed from the tunnels (for instance, by wave action), sand isopods swim down to the substrate, where they dig underground again.
Ecology
C. coeca feeds on carrion, which it holds with its gnathopods while chewing pieces off with its mandibles.[3]
References
- ^ Rachael A. King and Alison M. Cawood (2007). "A revision of the genus Chiridotea (Isopoda: Chaetiliidae) with species redescriptions and a key". Journal of Crustacean Biology 27 (1): 121–139. doi:10.1651/S-2708.1.
- ^ Hugh Griffith & Malcolm Telford (1985). "Morphological adaptations to burrowing in Chiridotea coeca (Crustacea, Isopoda)". The Biological Bulletin 168 (2): 296–311. JSTOR 1541242. http://biostor.org/reference/9955.
- ^ J. C. Britton & Brian Morton (1993). "Are there obligate marine scavengers?". In Brian Morton. The Marine Biology of the South China Sea: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Marine Biology of Hong Kong and the South China Sea, Hong Kong, 28 October-3 November 1990. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 357–392. ISBN 9789622093553. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-1AwfLvAuMgC&pg=PA367.
- Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 2 – Protostomes.
This isopod-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
