Copépodes notodelphyidae parasites de didemnidae (ascidies aplousobranches) dans le golfe d'eilat (mer rouge)

Two stays in Eilat laboratory (Red Sea) enable to gather a large collection of the family Didemnidae.The examination of the parasitic copepods Notodelphyidae found in these colonies leads to describe three genera and five species of Notodelphyidae new to science, all of them belonging to the polyphyletic group ophioseidimorph : Achelidelphgs gen. n., Cephalodelphys gen. n. and Syndelphys gen. n. These three genera are remarkable by the morphological reductions of the appendages : the antennule is the single appendage existing in two of them; it lacks in the third genera.The antenna and the mouthparts have disappeared in three genera.The parasitic specificity is rather strict.A comparison of the evolutionnary trends in both Didemnidae and their ophioseidimorph parasites enables to present a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis. [NOT CONTROLLED OCR]