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JPR Advance Access originally published online on June 16, 2004
Journal of Plankton Research 2004 26(11):1257-1263; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbh117
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Journal of Plankton Research Vol. 26 No. 11 © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved

Exotopic protrusions and ellobiopsid infection in zooplanktonic copepods of a large, deep subalpine lake, Lago Maggiore, in northern Italy

Marina Manca*, Antonio Carnovale and Paolo Alemani

CNR Istituto per lo Studio Degli Ecosistemi (ISE), Sezione di Idrobiologia ed Ecologia Delle Acque Interne, Largo Tonolli 52, 28922, Verbania Pallanza, Italy

* Corresponding Author: m.manca{at}ise.cnr.it

Received November 28, 2003; accepted in principle January 5, 2004; accepted for publication February 11, 2004; published online June 21, 2004

Exotopic protrusions were first recorded on zooplanktonic copepods of Lago Maggiore in 1992. They were classified into two types: (i) type I, the most abundant, dark, spherical and granular; (ii) type II, small, transparent and nongranular. They most commonly appeared on the lateral surface of adult Eudiaptomus padanus at the articulation of the second and third prosomal segments. Regular monitoring from 1994 to 2002 revealed the presence of additional, more complex protrusions, which may be later developmental stages of those already reported. In some instances, protrusions could be identified as successive stages of infection by ellobiopsids. The ellobiopsids are protists of uncertain taxonomic position, most probably achlorophyllous dinoflagellates, which during a phase of their life cycle parasitize zooplanktonic Crustacea. Originally described from marine organisms, the ellobiopsids have been reported from freshwater organisms only recently. They appear to herniate by puncturing the body of the host; this might explain the presence of host cells inside the cysts. Exotopic protrusions seem to represent a stable component of calanoid copepods from Lago Maggiore; however, they have been recently found to be more diverse in morphology and found to affect additional hosts, such as copepodites and nauplii of Cyclops abyssorum, which are the second most important copepod species of the lake.


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