| The members of the genus Staurosoma Will, 1844 are Copepods gallicol, parasites of Actiniae. The genus currently consists of two species, Staurosoma parasiticum Will, 1844, parasite of Anemonia sulcata Pennant, 1766 (= Actinia viridis) from the Mediterranean coasts (Will, 1844), in the Cape of La Hague area (English Channel) and the Gulf of Marseille (Caullery and Mesnil, 1902), and S. caulleryi Okada, 1927, parasite of Nemanthus nitidus (Wassilieff, 1908) (= Sagartianitida) in the Bay of Sagami in Japan. De Zulueta (1911) created for this unique genus the family Staurosomidae, a family that some more recent authors relate to Copepods Chondracanthidae. An update of the current knowledge was provided by Bouligand (1966), who details the differences between... |
