SHORT COMMUNICATION Tumour-like anomalies on copepods may be wounds from parasites

Tumour-like anomalies have been reported from planktonic copepods, and these protuberances have been suggested to be cancer tumours or Ellobiopsid ectoparasites. However, endoparasites, such as Blastodinium, may also produce such protuberances that persist after the parasite has left its host. During recent decades several groups of researchers have been puzzled by a variety of abnormal protuberances in planktonic copepods from marine and freshwater environ-ments (Crisafi and Crescenti, 1975; Silina and Khudolei, 1994; Manca et al., 1996; Omair et al., 1999). There may be more than one causative agent for these reported anomalies, since they have been of different shapes and morphologies. Crisafi described abnormal, ‘muff ’-shaped formations emerging from the anuses of copepods from the Mediterranean Sea and from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and believed them to be a response to ‘environ-mental pollution ’ (Crisafi, 1974). Furthermore, protrude