a parasite from a marine Copepod: Ellobiopsis

[Franz Neidl]

This is a parasite from the copepods: Ellobiopsis (chattonii?). It seems to me to be a very strange protozoon, with a very vague taxonomic status. They have been classified as Pyrrophyta, Sarcomastigophora, Flagellata incertae sedis, Fungi, "recently, however, they were included in a newly created phylum, the Myzozoa (Cavalier-Smith & Chao 2004)" (cfr. Walkusz W., L. Rolbiecki (2007): Epibionts (Paracineta) and parasites (Ellobiopsis) on copepods from Spitsbergen (Kongsfjorden area), in: Oceanologia 49 , 369-380.

Franz