Parasite, symbionts and microorganism of Neohelice granulata

Abstract

We present an overview of the virus, bacteria, helminth parasites, protozoan, microsporidian and metazoan symbionts that use Neohelice granulata as host. Several earlier reviews have covered crustacean diseases in general or only widely distributed species such as, for example, the blue crab Callinectes sapidus or the invasive green crab Carcinus maenas, but so far there was no compilation of the burrowing crab N. granulata parasites. This crab is a dominant species in the southwest Atlantic marshes and plays a key role as a host in several parasites life histories. The objective of this chapter is to review the information published so far in the aforementioned crustacean and also include some symbiotic organisms that had never been reported.