MORPHOLOGICAL AND MORPHOMETRIC STUDY OF CRUSTACEAN PARASITES WITHIN THE GENUS LERNAEOCERA

Two species of Lernaeocera are present in the southeastern North Sea. Lernaeocera lusci infects bib Trisopterus luscus, dragonet Callionymus lyra and sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus. L. minuta is a junior syno nym of L. lusci. The second valid species, L. branchialis, infects whi ting Merlangius merlangus. The two species can be morphologically sepa rated by the antennary processes, which are present in L. lusci and ab sent in L. branchialis. Discriminant functions allow complete separati on between L. lusci and L. branchialis. There is high intraspecific, h ost-dependent variability within L. lusci. Length of L. lusci is signi ficantly influenced by host size, and body form is influenced by the s ite of attachment of L. lusci on at least one host (bib). It is sugges ted that L. lusci consists of 3 forms: f. lusci, f. minuta and f. lyra .