Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from 1 to 340 millimetres and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far described. They are mostly marine animals, but are found in almost all aquatic environments. Some 1,900 species live in fresh water, and the order also includes the terrestrial sandhoppers such as Talitrus saltator and Arcitalitrus sylvaticus.
Gammaridea is one of the suborders of the order Amphipoda, comprising small, shrimp-like crustaceans. Until recently, in a traditional classification, it encompassed about 7,275 (92%) of the 7,900 species of amphipods described by then, in approximately 1,000 genera, divided among around 125 families. That concept of Gammaridea included almost all freshwater amphipods, while most of the members still were marine.
Corophiidae is a family of amphipods, containing the following genera:
Dexaminidae is a family of amphipods. It contains the following genera:
Phliantidae is a family of isopod-like amphipod crustaceans chiefly from the southern hemisphere.
Oedicerotidae is a family of amphipods. It comprises the following genera:
Lysianassidae is a family of marine amphipods, containing the following genera:
Paracalliopiidae is a family of amphipods, containing the following genera:
Leucothoidae is a family of amphipods. It contains 138 species in 5 genera:
Talorchestia is a genus of amphipod of the family Talitridae, containing the following species:
Photis is a genus of amphipod crustaceans, containing the following species:
Alicella gigantea is the largest species of amphipod ever observed, with some individuals reaching up to 34 centimetres (13 in) long. The average length of A. gigantea ranges from 72.5 to 141.0 millimeters, and its weight ranges from 4.2 to 45 grams[4]. Comparatively to other amphipods, the A. gigantea grows at a much faster rate. Formerly included in the family Lysianassidae, a new family, Alicellidae, was erected in 2008 for Alicella and five related genera. The species lives only at great depths; the first specimens were collected at the end of the 19th century from the Madeira Abyssal Plain, and subsequent specimens have been found in other abyssal plains of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as from the Kermadec Trench in the southwest Pacific. One specimen was found in the stomach of a black-footed albatross, but is thought to have been dead before it was eaten.
Amphilochus is a genus of crustaceans in the Amphipoda order, containing the following species:
Yhi yindi is a species of amphipod crustacean, known only from Orpheus Island, Queensland, Australia. It was described in 1991 by J. Laurens Barnard and J. D. Thomas, and remains the only species in the genus Yhi.
Pontogeneiidae is a family of amphipod crustaceans, containing the following genera:
Alicellidae is a family of amphipod crustaceans, which live as scavengers in the deep sea, often in association with hydrothermal vents. The family includes the following genera:
Cochinorchestia is a genus of amphipod belonging to the family Talitridae.
Maeridae is a family of marine amphipods, which was first described by Taudl Krapp-Schickel in 2008.
James Kenneth Lowry was a zoologist specialising in amphipods.
