Feeding, distribution, and reproductive behavior of cyamids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) living on humpback and right whales

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Abstract
Cyamids are little-known amphipod crustaceans that live only on cetaceans. Specimens were collected from strandings of three right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) and one humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). The intestinal contents of cyamids from the humpback whale indicated that they feed on a layer of whale skin containing pigment. The single species of cyamid from the humpback whale had a male-biased sex ratio (70% male) and its distribution indicated that males were competing for access to females. Two species of cyamids from the callosities of right whales occurred in different microhabitats. No reproductive synchrony was found between cyamids and their hosts. A species of cyamid that occurs in large patches on the head of young right whale calves disappears from the head when calf growth slows at approximately 2 months of age; this habitat shift may indicate a change in the quality or quantity of new skin.