Epicaridea

{{Short description|Suborder of crustaceans}}

{{automatic taxobox

| taxon = Epicaridea

| authority = Latreille, 1831

| subdivision_ranks = Superfamilies

| subdivision = *Bopyroidea Rafinesque, 1815

• {{nowrap|Cryptoniscoidea Kossmann, 1880}}

}}

Epicaridea is a former suborder of isopods, now treated as an infraorder in suborder Cymothoida.{{BioRef|WoRMS|title=Epicaridea |id=13795 |access-date=28 December 2022}}{{cite journal |author=Angelika Brandt & Gary C. B. Poore |year=2003 |title=Higher classification of the flabelliferan and related Isopoda based on a reappraisal of relationships |journal=Invertebrate Systematics |volume=17 |issue=6 |pages=893–923 |doi=10.1071/IS02032}} They are ectoparasites that inhabit other crustaceans, namely ostracods, copepods, barnacles and malacostracans. Epicarideans are found globally. Epicaridea are generally less well researched than other isopods.{{cite book |author=Brian Morton |year=2003 |title=Perspectives on Marine Environmental Change in Hong Kong and Southern China, 1977-2001 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=962-209-641-7 |pages=1–152}}

There is a high degree of sexual dimorphism within epicarideans. The female is commonly very asymmetrical, often losing segmentation. Two pairs of rudimentary antennae are carried on the head. Mouthparts show little development, with only mandibles and maxillipeds present, sometimes with a second pair of rudimentary maxillae. Males are of smaller size than females and of different appearance. Development is through regressive metamorphosis, undergoing two or three larval stages.{{cite book |author=Harriet Richardson |author-link=Harriet Richardson |year=1905 |title=A Monograph on the Isopods of North America |publisher=Government Printing Office |pages=[https://archive.org/details/monographsonisop00rich/page/1 1]–497 |url=https://archive.org/details/monographsonisop00rich}}

The oldest trace fossils of epicarideans, comprising preserved damage to gills of fossilised crustaceans, goes back to the Late Jurassic, and a lost specimen from the Toarcian of Western New Guinea suggests that it may go back further to the Early Jurassic. Fossil epicaridean larvae are known from the Vendée amber of France and the Burmese amber of Myanmar, dating to the early Late Cretaceous,{{Cite journal|last1=Schädel|first1=Mario|last2=Hörnig|first2=Marie K.|last3=Hyžný|first3=Matúš|last4=Haug|first4=Joachim T.|date=2021-06-01|title=Mass occurrence of small isopodan crustaceans in 100-million-year-old amber: an extraordinary view on behaviour of extinct organisms|journal=PalZ|volume=95|issue=3|pages=429–445|language=en|doi=10.1007/s12542-021-00564-9|issn=1867-6812|doi-access=free|bibcode=2021PalZ...95..429S }}{{Cite journal|last1=Schädel|first1=Mario|last2=Perrichot|first2=Vincent|last3=Haug|first3=Joachim T.|date=2019-11-12|title=Exceptionally preserved cryptoniscium larvae - morphological details of rare isopod crustaceans from French Cretaceous Vendean amber|url=https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2019/2757-cretaceous-epicaridea|journal=Palaeontologia Electronica|language=English|volume=22|issue=3|pages=1–46|doi=10.26879/977|s2cid=209391266|issn=1094-8074|doi-access=free}} and also from Miocene aged Chiapas amber.{{Cite journal|last1=Serrano-Sánchez|first1=María de Lourdes|last2=Nagler|first2=Christina|last3=Haug|first3=Carolin|last4=Haug|first4=Joachim T.|last5=Centeno-García|first5=Elena|last6=Vega|first6=Francisco J.|date=2016-01-21|title=The first fossil record of larval stages of parasitic isopods: cryptoniscus larvae preserved in Miocene amber|url=http://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/njgpa/detail/279/85414/The_first_fossil_record_of_larval_stages_of_parasi?af=crossref|journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen|language=en|volume=279|issue=1|pages=85414|doi=10.1127/njgpa/2016/0543|bibcode=2016NJGPA.279..543S |issn=0077-7749|url-access=subscription}}