Vol. 42, No. 18, pp. 443-454, 4 figs. PROCEEDINGS OF THE j CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES I Uf^lll982layl4,1982 f Woods Hole; Mass. I DENDROGASTER (CRUSTACEA: ASCOTHORACIDA) FROM CALIFORNIA: SEA-STAR PARASITES COLLECTED BY THE ALBATROSS By Mark J. Grygier Scripps Institution of Oceanography, A-008, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 ABSTRACT: Californian specimens of the ascothoracid crustacean genus Dendrogaster, discovered by W. K. Fisher in sea-stars collected by the ALBATROSS, are reviewed. Dendrogaster arbusculus Fisher, represented by a female and nauplii from Hippasteria californica Fisher, is redescribed, with special attention to the female internal anatomy. Also, two new species are described: D. fisheri n.sp., represented by two females, from Pedicellaster magister megalabis Fisher; and D. punctata, represented by females, a male, metanauplii, and ascothoracid larvae, from Poraniopsis inflata (Fisher). These are the only ascothoracids so far described from the west coast of the Americas south of Alaska. Introduction Ascothoracida Lacaze-Duthiers, 1880, is often classified (under the name Ascothoracica Gruvel, 1905) as a primitive order of Cirripedia (e.g., Lacaze-Duthiers 1880, 1883; Knipowitsch 1892; Gruvel 1905; Newman et al. 1969), but ar-guments for its elevation to an independent sub-class have also been made (Wagin 1937, 1947, 1976; Grygier 1980b, 1981a). The taxon now com-prises about 40 species in 10 genera, all parasites of echinoderms or coelenterates (reviewed by Wagin 1976). Dendrogaster Knipowitsch, 1890, parasitic in the coelomic cavity of sea-stars (Asteroidea), is the largest genus in the subclass. It includes over 20 species about the world, the taxonomy and biology of which have been studied principally by the Russian worker Wagin (especially 1950, 1954, 1957; summarized 1976). Other workers on this genus have included Knipowitsch (1890, 1891, 1892), Le Roi (1905, 1907), Okada (1925, 1938, 1941), Yosii (1931), Korschelt (1933), Hickman (1959), Achituv (1971), Karande and Oguro(1979, 1981a, 1981b), and Grygier (1981a, 1981b). Females of Dendrogaster have a large, branched mantle (modified carapace) containing gut diverticula, gonads, and a spacious brood chamber. The main body is reduced, only the first antennae and mouth parts being strongly developed. Eggs hatch as nauplii, metanauplii, or bivalved ascothoracid larvae (Wagin 1948, 1954). Larvae remain within the brood chamber until the ascothoracid stage. Males, which also live in the brood chamber, have an ascothoracid larvalike main body with five pairs of natatory appendages and a muscular abdomen terminat-ing in a furca. Their carapace lining is expanded posteriorly into a pair of winglike protrusions containing testes and a branch of the gut (Wagin 1946, 1954). Dendrogaster arbusculus Fisher, 1911, para-[443]
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