Phronima Latreille, 1802

Zeidler, Wolfgang, 2004, A review of the families and genera of the hyperiidean amphipod superfamily Phronimoidea Bowman & Gruner, 1973 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Hyperiidea), Zootaxa 567, pp. 1-66 : 10-11

Genus Phronima Latreille, 1802

Phronima Latreille, 1802: 38 .

Bivonia Cocco, 1832: 208 .

Type species

Cancer sedentarius Forsskål, 1775 , by monotypy. The holotype is in the ZMUC (Forsskål collection).

Diagnosis

Body moderately slender. Pereonites all separate. Pereonites 1 & 2 much narrower, and appreciably deeper, than following ones. Maxilliped with well­developed inner lobe, length about half, or more, than that of outer lobes. Gnathopods 1 & 2 weakly cheliform. Pereopod 5 with carpus markedly widened distally, forming strong subchela with propodus; anterior margin of basis to carpus smooth. Uropod 2 present in both sexes; endopod sometimes reduced but never absent.

Ten species.

Remarks

Species of Phronima , especially immature specimens, can be difficult to identify. Shih (1969) provides basic keys, illustrations and biological information, and Shih (1991) provides the latest key to species. Zeidler (1992a, 1998) provides additional taxonomic information.

The phronimids are unusual amongst the Hyperiidea in that they are often found in transparent barrel­shaped “houses” that they have fashioned from tunicates (salps, doliolids and pyrosomes) and sometimes from siphonophores, or even heteropods ( Firoloida ). Laval (1968b, 1978, 1980) provides more information on Phronima and its association with gelatinous ‘barrels’.

Additional biological information on Phronima is provided by Minkiewicz (1909a, b), Laval (1968b, 1980), Shih (1969), Repelin (1970, 1972), Laval and Lecher (1995), Land (1981, 1989, 1992), Vinogradov et al. (1982), Diebel (1988), Davenport (1994), Land et al. (1995) and Zelickman and Por (1996).

In view of all the above information that is available in the literature, only minimal additional information is provided here. The synonymy follows that justified by Shih (1969, 1991) and is not discussed further here.

Species of Phronima live in surface waters, and are relatively common in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world’s oceans, and rarely cross the Subtropical Convergence. Phronima sedentaria is an exception, having a circum­global distribution between 60°N and 60°S, sometimes occurring just south of 60°S ( Shih 1971a)