Pseudamphithoides incurvaria

Pseudamphithoides incurvaria
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Superorder:	Peracarida
Order:	Amphipoda
Family:	Ampithoidae
Genus:	Pseudamphithoides
Species:	P. incurvaria
Binomial name
	Pseudamphithoides incurvaria; (Just, 1977)
Synonyms
	Amphyllodomus incurvaria Just, 1977;

Last updated September 14, 2023

Pseudamphithoides incurvaria is a species of amphipod crustacean in the family Ampithoidae. It is native to shallow water in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean where it creates a home for itself from fragments of the algae on which it feeds. This seaweed contains certain chemicals that are distasteful and protect it from predatory fish.

Taxonomy

Two new single-species amphithoid genera were described in close succession in the mid-1970s, Pseudamphithoides Ortiz, 1976^[4] and Amphyllodomus Just, 1977. The latter had A. incurvaria as its type, with the specific name referring to the moth genus Incurvaria , whose cocoon is built similarly to A. incurvaria's home.^[3]

Both authors noted that the genera they were describing were unusual and divergent. This was marked enough that when Karaman and Barnard later noted the synonymy of the two genera,^[1] they further added: "[we] saw specimens of the genus from Puerto Rico in 1975 and had the same difficulty initially placing the genus in a family."^[1]

Home

Pseudamphithoides incurvaria lives concealed in a tube of its own construction. Two oval pieces of seaweed are bent in half longitudinally and stuck together along the long edges with a secreted glue, leaving slits open at each end. The anterior part of the animal projects at one end. The "domicile" is carried in a vertical position and the amphipod can clamber around among the hydroids and seaweed around it, and can swim while still enclosed in the casing, using strokes made by the plumose antennae.^[5]

Distribution

This amphipod is found in the tropical west central Atlantic Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea.^[6] Its depth range is from the shallow subtidal zone down to about 27 m (90 ft).^[7]

Ecology

A herbivore, P. incurvaria feeds exclusively on the flat-bladed brown alga Dictyota bartayresiana . This seaweed contains a diterpene alcohol that is distasteful to fish but not to the amphipod. The amphipod also uses pieces of the alga to build itself a home.^[8] Fish have been observed spitting out these casings after they have been ingested, but if the amphipod gets dislodged from the casing in the process, it is readily consumed.^[8]^[9] Researchers found that the amphipods selected D. bartayresiana to build their domicile even where it was rare, but would not use the seaweed Ulva unless there was no alternative. However, treating Ulva with pachydictyol—A, a major secondary metabolite of D. bartayresiana, made it acceptable. The study concluded that the host specificity of the amphipod was primarily driven by the need to avoid predation.^[10]

Young amphipods develop in a brood pouch and the juveniles remain inside their mother's domicile for a period of time, protected from predators and provided with easy access to their food supply.^[5]

Related Research Articles

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:

Bateidae is a family of amphipod crustaceans, comprising the single genus Batea, which in turn contains thirteen species:

Ochlesidae is a family of amphipods. They are very small, often less than 1.5 millimetres (0.06 in) long, and are found mainly in tropical and subtropical areas of the Southern Hemisphere. The family Odiidae has sometimes been subsumed into Ochlesidae.

Phliantidae is a family of isopod-like amphipod crustaceans chiefly from the southern hemisphere.

Pardaliscidae is a family of amphipods, whose members typically inhabit the deepest parts of ocean basins. It contains the following genera:

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:

Gammaridae is a family of amphipods. In North America they are included among the folk taxonomic category of "scuds", and otherwise gammarids is usually used as a common name.

Phronima sedentaria is a species of amphipod crustaceans found in oceans at a depth of up to 1 km (0.6 mi). They are large in size relative to other members of the family Phronimidae. Individuals may be found inside barrel-like homes, created most commonly from the tunics of select species of tunicate, where they rear their young. P. sedentaria is known to employ multiple feeding strategies and other interesting behaviors, including daily vertical migration. The species is also known by the more common names “pram bug” and “barrel shrimp.”

Pontogeneiidae is a family of amphipod crustaceans, containing the following genera:

Atylidae 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:

Martensia martensi is a species of amphipod crustacean, and the only species in the genus Martensia. It occurs in waters around Svalbard at depths of 37–95 metres (121–312 ft).

Sunamphitoe femorata is a species of amphipod crustacean in the family Ampithoidae. It is a herbivore and constructs a tubular nest-like home on a blade of the sporophyte of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera. This home is made by rolling the sides of the blade together and securing them with silk. As the kelp blade grows, the nest is advanced down the blade towards the base, approximately keeping pace with the algal growth.

Haustorius is a genus of amphipods in the family Haustoriidae. There are about six described species in Haustorius.

Ampithoidae is a family of amphipod crustaceans. The family has a worldwide distribution as algal dwellers. They commonly create tube-shaped nests on their host plants or algae which serve as both shelter and food. Young ampithoids develop from eggs to a larval stage within their mother's brood-pouch, formed by the appendages of her abdomen.

Dictyota bartayresiana, commonly known as a forded sea tumbleweed, is a species of brown alga found in the tropical western Indo-Pacific region and the Gulf of Mexico. It contains chemicals that are being researched for possible use as antimicrobials, as larvicides and as cytotoxins.

References

1 2 3 Karaman, Gordan S.; Barnard, J. Laurens (1979). "Classificatory revisions in Gammaridean Amphipoda (Crustaeea), Part 1". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 92: 106–165, 115. BHL page 35513822.
↑ Lowry, J. (2010). Lowry J (ed.). "Pseudamphithoides incurvaria (Just, 1977)". World Amphipoda database. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 15 April 2019.
1 2 Just, Jean (1977) [1978]. "Amphyllodomus incurvaria gen. et sp.n. (Crustacea, Amphipoda), a Remarkable Leaf‐cutting Amphithoid from the Marine Shallows of Barbados". Zoologica Scripta . 6 (3): 229–232. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.1978.tb00774.x. S2CID 84371593.
↑ Ortiz, M. (1976). "Un nuevo genero y una nueva especie de anfipodo de aguas Cubanas (Amphipoda, Gammaridea, Ampithoidae)". Ciencias, Serie 8: Investigaciones Marinas. 27: 1–26.
1 2 Thiel, Martin; Watling, Les (2015). Lifestyles and Feeding Biology. Oxford University Press. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-0-19-979702-8.
↑ "Pseudamphithoides incurvaria (Just, 1977)". SeaLifeBase. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
↑ Lewis, Sarah M.; Kensley, Brian (1982). "Notes on the ecology and behaviour of Pseudamphithoides incurvaria (Just) (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Ampithoidae)". Journal of Natural History. 16 (2): 267–274. doi:10.1080/00222938200770211.
1 2 Agosta, William (2009). Thieves, Deceivers, and Killers: Tales of Chemistry in Nature. Princeton University Press. pp. 109–110. ISBN 978-1-4008-3083-1.
↑ Wellborn, Gary A.; Thiel, Martin (2018). Life Histories. Oxford University Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-19-062027-1.
↑ Hay, Mark E.; Duffy, J. Emmett; Fenical, William (1990). "Host‐Plant Specialization Decreases Predation on a Marine Amphipod: An Herbivore in Plant's Clothing". Ecology. 71 (2): 733–743. doi:10.2307/1940326. hdl: 1853/42185 . JSTOR 1940326.

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[karaman-1] 1 2 3 Karaman, Gordan S.; Barnard, J. Laurens (1979). "Classificatory revisions in Gammaridean Amphipoda (Crustaeea), Part 1". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 92: 106–165, 115. BHL page 35513822.

[WoRMS-2] Lowry, J. (2010). Lowry J (ed.). "Pseudamphithoides incurvaria (Just, 1977)". World Amphipoda database. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 15 April 2019.

[just-3] 1 2 Just, Jean (1977) [1978]. "Amphyllodomus incurvaria gen. et sp.n. (Crustacea, Amphipoda), a Remarkable Leaf‐cutting Amphithoid from the Marine Shallows of Barbados". Zoologica Scripta . 6 (3): 229–232. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.1978.tb00774.x. S2CID 84371593.

[4] Ortiz, M. (1976). "Un nuevo genero y una nueva especie de anfipodo de aguas Cubanas (Amphipoda, Gammaridea, Ampithoidae)". Ciencias, Serie 8: Investigaciones Marinas. 27: 1–26.

[Thiel-5] 1 2 Thiel, Martin; Watling, Les (2015). Lifestyles and Feeding Biology. Oxford University Press. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-0-19-979702-8.

[6] "Pseudamphithoides incurvaria (Just, 1977)". SeaLifeBase. Retrieved 16 April 2019.

[7] Lewis, Sarah M.; Kensley, Brian (1982). "Notes on the ecology and behaviour of Pseudamphithoides incurvaria (Just) (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Ampithoidae)". Journal of Natural History. 16 (2): 267–274. doi:10.1080/00222938200770211.

[Agosta-8] 1 2 Agosta, William (2009). Thieves, Deceivers, and Killers: Tales of Chemistry in Nature. Princeton University Press. pp. 109–110. ISBN 978-1-4008-3083-1.

[9] Wellborn, Gary A.; Thiel, Martin (2018). Life Histories. Oxford University Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-19-062027-1.

[10] Hay, Mark E.; Duffy, J. Emmett; Fenical, William (1990). "Host‐Plant Specialization Decreases Predation on a Marine Amphipod: An Herbivore in Plant's Clothing". Ecology. 71 (2): 733–743. doi:10.2307/1940326. hdl: 1853/42185 . JSTOR 1940326.

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