New hosts and distribution records ofThalassomyces marsupiiKane, an ellobiopsid parasite on amphipods

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Abstract
This paper records six new amphipod hosts for the recently described ellobiopsid parasite Thalassomyces marsupii Kane, only known previously on Parathemisto gaudichaudi (Hyperiidea, Hyperiidae). One of these hosts is another Parathemisto species, P. abyssorum, but the other five belong to the family Eusiridae, and thus are the first records of parasitism by Ellobiopsidae in the sub-order Gammaroidea. Four of the new hosts, viz. Eusirus leptocarpus, E. longipes, Parathemisto abyssorum, and Rhachotropis macropus have been collected in western Norway; the fifth, R. aculeata, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The record for the sixth new host, R. helleri, is based on a description and sketch in the literature (Sexton 1909), apparently misinterpreted by its author as eggs of the amphipod. Some notes on the rate of infection by Thalassomyces on Rhachotropis macropus are given and attention is drawn to the occurrence of parasite scars and double infection in this species. Finally, ecological similarities between the Hyperiidae and Eusiridae are discussed; these help to explain the occurrence of the same parasite species in these taxonomically rather distantly related families.