Copepodid stages of laboratory-reared Astericola asterinae (Bocquet, 1952)(Copepoda, Poecilostomatoida, Lichomolgidae), a copepod associated with Asterina gibbosa (Pennant, 1777) of Lake Faro (Messina)

We describe the five copepodids of Astericola asterinae (Bocquet, 1952) a p oecilostomatoid copepod (family Lichomolgidae), reared in the laboratory. I t shows only very slight sexual dimorphism in the third segment of C5 maxil liped. Our study of the copepodid development, together with the observatio ns of Carton ( 1964), Bocquet et al. (1970) and Conradi et al. (1993), supp ort the separation of A. asterinae from its sister species A. clausi (Rosol l, 1889).