Suborder: GAMMARIDEA  Latreille, 1802
Infraorder: Gammarida  Latreille, 1802
Family: Ampeliscidae  Kröyer, 1842
Genus: Ampelisca Kröyer, 1842  

Description:

Size: up to 35 mm

Colour: whitish/pale yellow mottled with orange and pink

Head long; two pairs of distinct corneal lenses

Antenna 1 reaching beyond end of peduncle of antenna 2, peduncle article 1 only half length of 2; antenna 2 more than half body length in female

Coxal plates 1-2 posterodistal angle with small tooth, epimeral plate 3 distal angle with large tooth, posterior margin evenly convex; urosome segment 1 has a small flattened keel

Gnathopods slender, feebly subchelate; pereopods 3-4 dactylus much longer than two preceding joints combined; pereopod 3 merus without distal lobe; pereopod 7 basis expanded, obliquely truncated, strongly rounded at lower hind corner; ischium shorter than merus, carpus anterior margin notched, dactylus lanceolate; uropod 2 outer ramus with several long marginal spines, increasing in length distally; uropod 3 large, rami lanceolate

Telson elongate and deeply cleft

Habitat: mud

Mobility:

Feeding: suspension feeder

Distribution: Arctic Ocean, circumpolar, widely distributed: Labrador , Iceland , Greenland , Ireland , north-west Norway , Spitsbergen, Barents Sea, Kara Sea ; depth range about 20-1375m.

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.

Bryazgin, V. 1997. Diversity, distribution and ecology of benthic amphipods (Amphipoda, Gammaridea) in the Barents Sea sublittoral. Pol. Polar Res. 18(2) , pp. 89-106.

Dauvin, J-C., Bellan-Santini, D. 1988. Illustrated key to Ampelisca species from the North-Eastern Atlantic. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 68, pp. 659-676.

Gurjanova, E. F. 1951. Bokoplavy morjej SSSR I sopredel'nykh vod (Amphipoda - Gammaridea). Akad. Nauk SSSR, Opredel. Faune SSSR 41 , pp. 307-308.

Lincoln, R. J. 1979. British Marine Amphipoda: Gammaridea. Brit. Mus (Natural History) , pp. 118-119.

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. 174-176, pl. 61.

Stephensen, K. 1925. Crustacea Malacostraca. VI (Amphipoda II). Dan. Ingolf Exped. 3 (9) , pp. 138-141.

Stephensen, K. 1935. The Amphipoda of N. Norway and Spitsbergen with adjacent waters. Tromso Mus. Skr. 3(1) , pp. 121-123.

Stephensen, K. 1944. The zoology of East Greenland . Amphipoda. Medd. om Gronland. 121 (14) , p. 47

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.