Phliantidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

isopod Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

-like

amphipod Amphipoda () is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphipod species cur ...

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s 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. Because of this, and various other factors, including the square-ended form of the

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit ** podium * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...

, they resemble

isopods Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

Distribution and ecology

Most species are found in the Southern Hemisphere, where they live on

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...

Taxonomy

Phliantidae was originally proposed by

Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing The Reverend Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing (6 February 1835, London – 8 July 1926, Royal Tunbridge Wells) was a British zoology, zoologist, who described himself as "a serf to natural history, principally employed about crustacean, Crustacea". ...

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. It contains the following genera: *'' Iphinotus'' Stebbing, 1899 *'' Palinnotus'' Stebbing, 1900 *'' Pariphinotus'' Kunkel, 1910 *'' Pereionotus'' Bate & Westwood, 1862 *'' Plioplateia'' Barnard, 1916

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3934327 Talitrida Taxa named by Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing Amphipod families