What Is The Crustacean- Parasitic Adaptation?

Parasitism in a universal feature of all organic communities, hence it may be considered and ecological relationship of long evolutionary standing. During their evolutionary history all parasites have become variously modified and specialized for a parasitic existence.
Peculiarities of the crustaceans are as follows:

Degeneration.
Parasites have lost organs no longer used in adult form. Cirripedia and copepoda look similar in shape due to parasitic degeneration.
Adhesive organs.
Adhesive organs in the form of suckers and hooks have specially developed for attachment to the host externally or inside cavities.
Feeding.
There are various modifications in nutrition. Feeding occurs by suction or absorption through organs, which do not always represent true organs.
Reproduction.
Reproduction is vast and wasteful to ensure chances of fertilization.

Sexual dimorphism.
Usually a remarkable parallelism occurs between the degree of parasitism and the degree of sexual dimorphism.
Hermaphroditism.
Hermaphroditism is induced in some cases due to parasitism.
Life cycle.
A striking feature of parasitism is general is the complexity of life cycle to overcome various hazards of life. There is no complicated wandering from host, no alternation of hosts and no alternation of generations.
Effect on host
The general effect of parasitism has many variables. In some cases, the parasites seem to have no noticeable effect on the host.

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