Comprehensive Description
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Forms an elongated, sacklike growth on the abdomen of several shrimp species. Diameter to 1.2 cm.
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Look Alikes
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How to Distinguish from Similar Species: This may be the only Sylon species. Its characteristic sack-like shape is distinctive.
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Distribution
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Geographical Range: Arctic, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, North Pacific, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan, North Atlantic, Iceland, Greenland, Shetland Islands, Spitzbergen
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Comprehensive Description
provided by Invertebrates of the Salish Sea
Biology/Natural History: Rhizocephalan barnacles such as this species are bizarrely distorted parasitic barnacles. It was not even known that they were barnacles until the cypris larva in their life cycle was discovered. The eggs of Rhizocephalans usually hatch as a nauplius larva which metamorphoses into a cypris larva. Members of order Akentrogonida, however, such as Sylon hippolyte, apparently pass the nauplius stage in the egg and hatch as a cypris. The female cyprid settles onto a recently molted host or attaches to the host gill. She attaches to the host using a glue gland on her antennae. She then metamorphoses, losing her legs and eyes. She extrudes her tissue through the antenna or through her mouth through the host carapace into the host internal tissue. At that point she may be called a "kentrogon" if she is in order Kentrogonida. The injected barnacle grows into a ramifying rootlike structure called an "interna". The interna begins growing by sending out rootlike projections through the body of the host. These projections absorb nutrients from the host, and typically destroy the gonads. The interna may grow very large and may actually become heavier than the host tissue. When she matures, a part of her body called the "externa" erupts through the exoskeleton of the host, usually on the ventral side of the abdomen near the gonads. The externa has a cavity for eggs and a place for males to attach. Male cyprids settle into the externa and metamorphose into a wormlike structure. Female shrimp which have this parasite species do not bear eggs, so the parasite is probably a parasitic castrator as are many Rhizocephalans.
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Habitat
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Parasitic on shrimps from families Hippolytidae, Pandalidae, and Crangonidae..
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Sylon hippolytes
provided by wikipedia EN
Sylon hippolytes is a castrating parasite that infects the shrimp Pandalina brevirostris.
Structure
The adult female parasite consists of a body that can be differentiated into two distinct regions: a sac-like structure containing the reproductive organs (the externa), and a trophic, root like system situated inside the hosts body (the interna). It forms an elongated, sac-like growth on the abdomen of several shrimp species, measuring up to 1.2 centimeters in diameter. S. hippolytes castrates infected female shrimp by absorbing the reproductive energy of the host. Many other Rhizocephalan have the same castrating characteristic. The presence of the parasite will eventually come to pass after it dies, and the castrating mechanism is reversed for the host.
Life cycle
Sylon hippolytes typically lives up to a maximum of one year.
Reproduction
Sylon hippolytes are r-strategists. An externa can only produce offspring once during its lifetime. Therefore, the parasite utilizes an enormous amount of energy towards producing as many eggs as possible for reproduction. The size of the parasitic sac has proportional relationship with the size of its host. When S. hippolytes infect smaller hosts, the number of eggs produced can range from 1400 to 22000. As expected, when the parasite infects larger hosts, the range of eggs is larger, ranging from 19000 to one million eggs. This process requires a male cypris larva to penetrate the integument of the externa and deposit spermatogonia cells into the receptacles of the female externa.[2]
Distribution
Arctic, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, North Pacific, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan, North Atlantic, Iceland, Greenland, Shetland Islands, Spitzbergen
References
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^ [1], Cowles, D. (n.d.). Sylon hippolytes M. Sars, 1870.
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^ Nagler, C.; Hörnig, M. K.; Haug, J. T.; Noever, C.; Høeg, J. T.; Glenner, H. (2017). "The bigger, the better? Volume measurements of parasites and hosts: Parasitic barnacles (Cirripedia, Rhizocephala) and their decapod hosts". PLOS ONE. 12 (7): e0179958. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1279958N. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179958. PMC 5497970. PMID 28678878.
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Sylon hippolytes: Brief Summary
provided by wikipedia EN
Sylon hippolytes is a castrating parasite that infects the shrimp Pandalina brevirostris.
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