The adult females fo this family bear little resemblance to free-living isopods. The developing larvae give clues to their taxonomic affiliations. Cabiropsidae Cabiropsids are parasitic on free-living isopods and hyperparasitic on other epicaridean isopods. The family may also include a few parasites of cumaceans. For more information on isopods go to Keys to the Isopods or the Smithsonian's Isopoda bibliography.
Entoniscid isopods are unusual internal parasites of brachyuran and anomuran crabs.
One species has also been reported from an alpheid shrimp. The parasites typically live in the hemocoel of the host and communicate externally via a small pore that f orms through the exoskeleton of the host. In one host species, a pagurid, the chitinized pore occurs in the eyestalk. This list is organized alphabetically by genus with the type species in bold print. Entonisciens nouveaux des cotes de France.