Nicothoe tumulosa is a species of copepod parasitic on the gills of the glypheoid lobster Neoglyphea inopinata.

It was deposited in the United States National Museum, where it remained unidentified until Michèle de Saint Laurent examined it in 1975.

Her colleague Jacques Forest recognised that it represented the first known extant species of the infraorder Glypheidea, which was thought to have been extinct since the Eocene, a conclusion endorsed by Fenner A. Chace, Jr. and Raymond B.

[2] The specific epithet tumulosa is from the Latin meaning "full of mounds", referring to the surface texture of the animal's back.

[2] N. tumulosa differs from other related species by the numbers of setae on its legs, and by the surface texture of the trunk.