Notes on amphipods associated with loggerhead marine turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758) in south-eastern Brazil

Abstract

Abstract The loggerhead marine turtle is an ideal substrate for epibionts and presents the highest diversity of associated fauna among marine turtles. Here we report the occurrence of two amphipod species, Caprella andreae Mayer, 1890 and Podocerus chelonophilus (Chevreux and Guerne, 1888) from the carapace of one stranded Caretta caretta (Linnaeus , 1758) in Ubatuba, São Paulo state, Brazil. This is the first record of P. cheloniphilus for Brazil and for the South Atlantic Ocean.

Keywords

• Caprella andreae
• epibiosis
• loggerhead marine turtle
• Podocerus cheloniphilus