Sand fleas

Code OPxxxxxx

The antennules and antennae are moderately stout and setose. The antennules usually are longer than the antennae and the flagellum of the antenna is shorter than its peduncle. The gnathopods are strongly sexually dimorphic with the second always larger than the first, and are very powerful in the male. Pereopods 3 and 4 are similar in size and slender, with pereopod 5 smaller than pereopods 6-7 which are subequal. Uropods 1 and 2 are fairly compact. The peduncle of uropod 1 carries a large, robust, basofacial seta.

Uropod 3 is very long, with both the outer and inner rami linear and spinose and the outer ramus 1-2 segmented. The telson is cleft, often to the base, and the apices of the telson carry either a deep notch or a spine. Thoracic sternal gills are absent, but simple, saclike gills occur on the coxae (not on pereopod 7).

This is a mainly marine or brackish estuarine family. It commonly has been excluded from lists of aquatic amphipods but three genera are reported by Bradbury and Williams (1999) from Australian inland waters. Their localities are North West Cape (1 sp.), Barrow Island (7 sp.), Flinders Ranges (1 sp.). A fourth genus (1 sp.) occurs in an artificial coastal freshwater lake in NSW.

References:

Bradbury, J. H., and W. D. Williams. (1999) Key to and checklist of the inland aquatic amphipods of Australia . Technical reports of the Australian Museum, number 14.

Horwitz, P., Knott, B. and Williams, W.D. (1995) A Preliminary Key to the Malacostracan Families (Crustacea) found in Australian Inland Waters . Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology Identification Guide No. 4., Albury, NSW.

Williams, W. D. (1980) Australian Freshwater Life . Macmillan.