''Corophium volutator'' is a species of
amphipod crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...
in the family
Corophiidae.
It is found in
mudflat
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...
s of the northern
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
. It is native to the north-east Atlantic Ocean, and has been introduced to the north-west Atlantic.
Description
''Corophium volutator'' is a slender animal, up to long, "whitish with brown markings".
The head bear two pairs of
antennae, the first of which are small and point forwards, while the distinctive second pair are much longer and thicker.
Life cycle
There are 1–2 generations per year,
and the females brood the eggs inside their
brood pouch or ''marsupium''.
They can occur in huge quantities: up to 60,000 per square metre have been observed.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1460707
Corophiidea
Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean
Crustaceans described in 1766
Taxa named by Peter Simon Pallas