(No common name)

ORDER

Tricladida

FAMILY

Bdellouridae

TAXONOMY

Bdelloura candida (Girard, 1850), Massachusetts, United States.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

None known.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Body lanceolate or oval shaped, lateral margins undulated, measure 0.6 × 0.2 in (15 × 4 mm) ranging up to 0.9 in (25 mm). Caudal adhesive disk wide as body and set off from the rest of the body; pharynx large about one-third of body; eye lenses absent; numerous testes distributed throughout body; whitish in color.

DISTRIBUTION

Same distribution as host Limulus polyphemus along eastern seaboard of United States from Maine south to the Gulf of Mexico.

HABITAT

Ectocommensal on the last pair of cleaning legs and gills of host.

BEHAVIOR

Obligate commensal in that it does not occur off its host.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Most likely feeds on debris and food particles stirred up by its host.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Lays cocoons from May until mid-August on inner surface of gill lamellae of host. Cocoons are 0.15 in (4 mm) in length by 0.07 in (2 mm) in diameter and located on a pedicel 0.39 in (1 mm) high. Development is direct.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.