Fig 1: Adult female Ceratothoa oestroides settled in the buccal cavity of the juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).
Adult male and female mate in the host buccal cavity (Fig. 1). Embryos develop in the female
marsupium, where offspring pass through different pullus stages until they are released from the marsupium as free swimming manca, ready for infecting fish hosts. C. oestroides is one of the most devastating ectoparasites in Mediterranean aquaculture, with an unequal distribution along different geographical areas[5][6][7][8]
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^Charfi-Cheikhrouha, F.; Zghidi, W.; Yarba, L. O.; Trilles, J. P. (2000). "Le Cymothoidae (Isopods parasites de poissons) des cotes tunisiennes: ecologie et indices parasitologiques". Systematic Parasitology. 46 (2): 143–150. doi:10.1023/A:1006336516776. PMID10830837. S2CID35895535.
^Trilles, J.P.; Radujkovic, B.M. & Romestand, B. (1989). "Parasites des Poissons marins du Montenegro: isopods". Acta Adriatica. 30 (1/2): 279–306.
^Mladineo, I. (2002). "Prevalance of Ceratothoa oestroides (Risso, 1826), a cymothoid isopode parasite, in cultured sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax L. on two farms in middle Adriatic Sea". Acta Adriatica. 43: 97–102.
^Vagianou, S.; Athanassopoulou, F.; Ragias, V.; Di Cave, D.; Leontides, L.; Golomazou, E. (2006). "Prevalence and pathology of ectoparasites of Mediterranean sea bream and sea bass reared under different environmental and aquaculture conditions". Israeli Journal of Aquaculture. 60: 128–133. hdl:10524/19164.