lernæoidea

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. An order of Epizoa, containing those most degraded parasitic crustaceans whose bodies are worm-like and whose limbs are rudimentary, as in the families Chondracanthidæ, Lernæidæ, and Lernæopodidæ. The limbs, when present, are simple inarticulate processes, serving only to fix the parasite on its host. The thorax is inarticulate and the abdomen usually rudimentary. These fish-lice, especially the females, exhibit the extreme of degradation and distortion of form. Also Lernæodea.