Suborder: GAMMARIDEA  Latreille, 1802
Infraorder: Gammarida  Latreille, 1802
Family: Oedicerotidae  Lilljeborg, 1865
Genus: Arrhis Stebbing, 1906  

Description:

Size: up to 15-24 mm

Colour: whitish with pink tinge

Head without rostrum; eyes indistinct

Antenna 1, peduncle article 2 very slender and setose, almost twice of length of article 1; antenna 1 and 2 subequal in length in female, in male antenna 2 longer than 1

First pair of coxal plates strongly expanded anteriorly; epimeral plates 1-3 broadly rounded.

Gnathopods 1,2 subchelate, similar; gnathopod 1 carpal lobe short and broad, gnathopod 2 carpal lobe longer and more slender; pereopods 3-6 setose, dactylus lanceolate; pereopod 7 very long, dactylus spiniform

Telson entire, as long as wide, terminal edge straight

Habitat: mud

Mobility: mobile

Feeding:

Distribution: Arctic Ocean, circumpolar, widely distributed: North Atlantic, north American coast, Greenland , Iceland , Spitsbergen, North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat ; depths from a few meters down to > 2600m.

Distribution in Svalbard's fjords:

References:

Brandt, A. 1997. Biodiversity of peracarid crustaceans (Malacostraca) from shelf down to the deep Arctic Ocean. Biodiversity and Conservation 6, pp. 1533-1556.

Enequist, P. 1949. Studies on the soft-bottom amphipods of the Skagerrak. Zool Bijdr. 28 , pp. 362-363.

Gurjanova, E. F. 1951. Bokoplavy morjej SSSR I sopredel'nykh vod (Amphipoda - Gammaridea). Akad. Nauk SSSR, Opredel. Faune SSSR 41 , pp. 534-535.

Kaczmarek, H ., Włodarska-Kowalczuk, M., Legeżyńska, J ., Zajączkowski, M . 2005. Shallow sublitoral macrozoobenthos in Kongsfjord, West Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Pol. Polish Res. 26 (2) , pp. 137-155.

Lincoln, R. J. 1979. British Marine Amphipoda: Gammaridea. Brit. Mus (Natural History) , pp. 356-357.

Sainte-Marie, B. , Brunel, P. 1983. Differences in life history and success between suprabenthic shelf populations of Arrhis phyllonyx (Amphipoda, Gammaridea) in two ecosystems of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. J. Crust. Biol. 3 , pp. 45-69.

Sainte-Marie, B., Brunel, P. 1985. Suprabenthic gradients of swimming activity by cold-water gammaridean amphipod Crustacea over a muddy shelf in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 23 , pp. 57-69.

Sars, G. O. 1890-1895. An account of the Crustacea of Norway with short descriptions and figures of all the species, vol. I: Amphipoda, Cammermeyers, pp. 338-340, pl. 119-120.

Stephensen, K. 1931. Crustacea Malacostraca. VII. (Amphipoda III). Dan. Ingolf Exped. 3 (11) , pp. 232-234.

Stephensen, K. 1938. The Amphipoda of N. Norway and Spitsbergen with adjacent waters. Tromso Mus. Skr. 3(2) , pp. 208-210.

Stephensen, K. 1944. The zoology of East Greenland. Amphipoda. Medd. om Gronland. 121 (14) , pp. 68-69.

Węsławski, J. M. 1990. Distribution and ecology of South Spitsbergen coastal marine Amphipoda (Crustacea). Pol. Arch. Hydrobiol. 37 (4) , pp. 503-519.

Węsławski, JM ., Legeżyńska , J. 2002. Life cycles of some Arctic amphipods, Pol. Polar Res. 23 (3-4), pp. 253-264.