Distribution
A scanning electron microscope photograph of the head end of a Typhlotanais host carrying 2 specimens of Microdajus: a tantulus larva attached dorsally on the segment just behind the head, and a sac-like adult female (the large ovoid structure) attached on the underside of the head. © Natural History Museum, London
All tantulocaridans are external parasites of crustacean hosts:
- they attach to their hosts and make a hole in its surface using a stylet that is pushed out through a pore in the centre of an oral disc
- the stylet is then withdrawn and the parasite begins to feed by extracting nutrition from its host via the pore
Microdajus pectinatus has been found attached to bottom-living tanaid crustaceans belonging to a single species of the genus Typhlotanais collected at a depth of 2,175 to 2,500 metres in the north-eastern Atlantic (56N 10W). This is the only known site where Microdajus pectinatus is found.
