Phliantidae Explained

Phliantidae is a family of isopod-like amphipod crustaceans chiefly from the southern hemisphere.

Description

Members of the family Phliantidae are unusual among the order Amphipoda, because they have dorso-ventrally flattened bodies with a pronounced dorsal keel, rather than being flattened side-to-side.^[1] Because of this, and various other factors, including the square-ended form of the rostrum, they resemble isopods.^[2]

Distribution and ecology

Most species are found in the Southern Hemisphere, where they live on algae in the intertidal zone.^[3]

Taxonomy

Phliantidae was originally proposed by Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing in 1899 for a group that also contained the genera currently placed in the family Prophliantidae, while Temnophlias has also been moved from Phliantidae to its own monotypic families.^[4] It contains the following genera:^[5]

• Iphinotus Stebbing, 1899
• Palinnotus Stebbing, 1900
• Pariphinotus Kunkel, 1910
• Pereionotus Bate & Westwood, 1862
• Plioplateia Barnard, 1916

Notes and References

1. Phliantidae . Charles Oliver Coleman . 2009 . . 2260 . 766–770 .
2. Book: Sol Felty Light & James T. Carlton . 2007 . The Light and Smith manual: intertidal invertebrates from central California to Oregon . 4th . . 978-0-520-23939-5 . Phliantidae . 558 . https://books.google.com/books?id=64jgZ1CfmB8C&pg=PA558.
3. Book: James K. Lowry . 2003 . Peracarida : Amphipoda, Cumacea, Mysidacea . Volume 2, Part 2 of Zoological catalogue of Australia: Crustacea: Malacostraca . . 978-0-643-06902-2 . Phliantidae Stebbing, 1899 . 221–223 . https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5LTA9bAHqYC&pg=PA221.
4. Cristiana S. Serejo . 2003 . Cladistic revision of talitroidean amphipods (Crustacea, Gammaridea), with a proposal of a new classification . . 33 . 6 . 551–586 . 10.1111/j.0300-3256.2004.00163.x. 85968161 .
5. Web site: Claude De Broyer, Mark Costello & Denise Bellan-Santini . 2010 . Phliantidae . J. Lowry . World Amphipoda database . . October 9, 2010.