Anchor worm - Lernaea cyprinacea

Japanese: イカリムシ(錨虫) - イカリムシ（英語表記）Lernaea cyprinacea

A type of external parasite of freshwater fish (illustration). A small crustacean in the order Cyprinodontidae of the subclass Copepoda. Adult females are about 4-12 mm long. The rod-shaped body digs the front of the body deeply into the skin or oral mucosa of eels, crucian carp, goldfish, killifish, etc., and fixes itself to the host's body tissue with an anchor-like attachment organ on the front of the body. The torso is exposed on the host's surface. During the breeding season from spring to autumn, a pair of elongated egg sacs appears at the rear of the body, and nauplii larvae hatch from the eggs inside these, which progress through the metanauplius and copepod stages to become adults. Males mate at the copepod stage, the last larval stage of the free-living larvae stage, and then die.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

淡水魚類の外部寄生虫の1種（イラスト）。橈脚（じようきやく）亜綱ウオジラミ目イカリムシ科の小型甲殻類。雌の成体は体長4～12mmくらい。体は棒状で，体の前部をウナギ，フナ，キンギョ，メダカなどの皮膚や口腔の粘膜に深く食いこませ，体前部にある錨状の固着器で宿主の体の組織内に固定する。胴部は宿主の体表に出ている。春から秋にかけての繁殖時期には，体の後部に1対の細長い卵囊が現れ，この中の卵からノープリウス幼生がかえり，メタノープリウス，コペポジット期を経て成体となるが，雄は自由生活幼生期の最後の幼生期であるコペポジットで交尾し，その後で死ぬ。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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