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Fish Isopods
Cymothoidae
The Cymothoidae are a family of isopods in the suborder Cymothoida and are found in both marine and freshwater environments. Cymoithoids are ectoparasites, usually of fish, and among their number they include the bizarre "tongue-biter" (Cymothoa exigua) which attaches to a fish's tongue causing it to atrophy, and replaces the tongue with its own body. Around 40 genera and more than 380 species of cymothoid are recognised.
28 branches of this family, most-observed first
Fish Lice
genusAnilocra
Nerocila
genusNerocila
Elthusa
genusElthusa
Tongue Lice
genusCymothoa
Buccal Lice
genusCeratothoa
Livoneca
genusLivoneca
Creniola
genusCreniola
Renocila
genusRenocila
Olencira
genusOlencira
Norileca
genusNorileca
Braga
genusBraga
Mothocya
genusMothocya
Ichthyoxenos
genusIchthyoxenos
Ourozeuktes
genusOurozeuktes
Riggia
genusRiggia
Glossobius
genusGlossobius
Cinusa
genusCinusa
Vanamea
genusVanamea
Lobothorax
genusLobothorax
Pseudirona
genusPseudirona
Aegathoa
genusAegathoa
Joryma
genusJoryma
Catoessa
genusCatoessa
Smenispa
genusSmenispa
Agarna
genusAgarna
Artystone
genusArtystone
Anphira
genusAnphira
Philostomella
genusPhilostomella
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Cymothoidae 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 49937.