Asellota Explained

Asellota is a suborder of isopod crustaceans found in marine and freshwater environments.^[1] Roughly one-quarter of all marine isopods belong to this suborder.^[2] Members of this suborder are readily distinguished from other isopods by their complex copulatory apparatus. Other characteristics include six-jointed antennal peduncle, the styliform uropods (a character shared with some other isopod groups), the fusion of pleonites 5, 4 and sometimes 3 to the pleotelson, and absence of the first pleopod in females.^{[2] [3]}

Classification

The suborder Asellota comprises these families:^[4] Some classifications also include the Microcerberidea within Asellota.^[4] Janiroidea Sars, 1897

• Acanthaspidiidae Menzies, 1962
• Dendrotiidae Vanhöffen, 1914
• Desmosomatidae Sars, 1899
• Echinothambematidae Menzies, 1956
• Haplomunnidae Wilson, 1976
• Haploniscidae Hansen, 1916
• Ischnomesidae Hansen, 1916
• Janirellidae Menzies, 1956
• Janiridae Sars, 1897
• Joeropsis Koehler, 1885^[5]
• Joeropsididae Nordenstam, 1933
• Katianiridae Svavarsson, 1987
• Macrostylidae Hansen, 1916
• Mesosignidae Schultz, 1969
• Microparasellidae Karaman, 1933
• Mictosomatidae Wolff, 1965
• Munnidae Sars, 1897
• Munnopsidae Lilljeborg, 1864
• Nannoniscidae Hansen, 1916
• Paramunnidae Vanhöffen, 1914
• Pleurocopidae Fresi & Schiecke, 1972
• Santiidae Wilson, 1987
• Thambematidae Stebbing, 1913

Aselloidea Latreille, 1802

• Asellidae Latreille, 1802
• Stenasellidae Dudich, 1924

Stenetrioidea Hansen, 1905

• Pseudojaniridae Wilson, 1986
• Stenetriidae Hansen, 1905

Gnathostenetroidoidea Kussakin, 1967

• Gnathostenetroididae Kussakin, 1967
• Protojaniridae Fresi, Idato & Scipione, 1980
• Vermectiadidae Just & Poore, 1992

Notes and References

1. Web site: Asellota . Crustacea.net . J. K. Lowry . October 2, 1999 . Crustacea, the Higher Taxa . January 29, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090120094611/http://crustacea.net/crustace/www/asellota.htm . January 20, 2009 . dead .
2. Web site: Guide to the Coastal Marine Isopods of California . Richard Brusca, Vania R. Coelho and Stefano Taiti . Suborder Asellota . January 28, 2009 .
3. Web site: Definition of the Asellota . https://web.archive.org/web/20050623062934/http://www.personal.usyd.edu.au/~buz/Asellota/asell-def.html . dead . June 23, 2005 . George D. F. (Buz) Wilson . . January 28, 2009 .
4. Book: An Updated Classification of the Recent Crustacea . J. W. Martin & G. E. Davis . 2001 . 132 pp . . . 2009-12-14 . 2013-05-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130512091254/http://atiniui.nhm.org/pdfs/3839/3839.pdf . dead .
5. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=118369 WoRMS