Discovery Lecture Series: Whale Lice - A Closer Look at some Hitchhiking Crustaceans

Crustaceans of the order Amphipoda are ubiquitous in the marine realm, and include some species that occur in freshwater and terrestrial environments. With more than 6,000 named species, the alpha-diversity of this one crustacean lineage exceeds that of the mammals. Among the amphipods, members of the family Cyamidae have a particularly interesting ecology; they live in obligate symbiotic associations with whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Given their particular niche, cyamids are more commonly referred to as whale-lice. More than two dozen species of whale-lice have been described, each of which lives exclusively on the surface of one or more cetacean hosts. Whale-lice exhibit direct development; that is, their life history includes no larval or free-living stage. Not surprisingly, these animals then exhibit a high degree of host-fidelity. Initial studies of the group were simple descriptions of specimens that had been collected during commercial and sustenance harvests of the hosts.

Additional material is available for study from targeted collections and from strandings. The cyamids have been referred to as parasitic amphipods. However, the nature of their association with cetaceans remains poorly understood. The current state of knowledge of the ecology of the whale-lice is shared, as well as a detailed review of their unique morphology and what such evidence suggests about cyamid phylogeny. Additionally, patterns of relationships among the whale-lice are compared to current phylogenetic hypotheses for their cetacean hosts.

Dr. Todd Haney began his studies of marine invertebrates as an undergraduate at Northern Arizona University, where regular trips for fieldwork in the northern Sea of Cortez fostered his interest in the diversity of Crustacea. He completed a phylogenetic analysis of the whale-lice (family Cyamidae) for a master’s degree in marine science at the University of Charleston, South Carolina, and then continued in crustacean systematics for his doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, Dr. Haney is an instructor of life and environmental sciences at Sage Hill School, an independent school in Newport Coast, California, where he has been teaching since 2005.