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iNat·245493FamilyAnimalia268 field observations
  1. Animals
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  4. ›Typical Crustaceans
  5. ›Malacostracans
  6. ›Decapods, Isopods, and allies
  7. ›Amphipods, Isopods, and Allies
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  9. ›Senticaudata
  10. ›Corophiida
  11. ›Caprellidira
  12. ›Skeleton Shrimp, Whale Lice, and Allies
Whale Lice
Plate 1 of 6. (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Cricket Raspet · via iNaturalist

Whale Lice

Cyamidae

A whale louse is a commensal crustacean of the family Cyamidae. Despite the name, they are not true lice (which are insects), but rather are related to the better-known skeleton shrimp, most species of which are found in shallower waters. Whale lice are external parasites, found in skin lesions, genital folds, nostrils and eyes of marine mammals of the order Cetacea. These include not only whales but also dolphins and porpoises.

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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In the stacks

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Every page naming Cyamidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 245493.