Dendrogaster (Crustacea: Ascothoracida) parasitic in Alaskan and eastern Canadian Leptasterias (Asteroidea)

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Author: Grygier, Mark J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1986
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Bering Sea; Davis Strait; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z86-186; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z86-186

The ascothoracid parasite Dendrogaster is reported from four boreal localities in the Western Hemisphere. Dendrogaster elegans Wagin infests the sea star Leptasterias polaris in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; the eastern specimens have a shorter brood sac middle piece. A lectotype is selected and described for D. arctica Korschelt from L. groenlandica in the eastern Bering Sea; Siberian specimens previously assigned to this species differ from the type in many details. Immature specimens of an unidentified Dendrogaster species have been found in L. floccosa from the Davis Strait.