Suborder: GAMMARIDEA  Latreille, 1802
Infraorder: Gammarida  Latreille, 1802
Family: Oedicerotidae  Lilljeborg, 1865
Genus: Paroediceros Sars, 1895  

Description:

Size: up to 25mm

Colour: whitish with brownish transversal bands

Head with straight rostrum reaching beyond end of peduncle article 1 of antenna 1; eyes large oval, red (white in spirit), placed on extreme front of head

Antenna 1 shorter than peduncle of antenna 2; flagellum shorter than peduncle, about 10- articulate; antenna 2 almost half of body, peduncle articles 4 an 5 about equal length, flagellum multiarticulate

Body robust, coxal plates 1-4 elongate, coxa 1 anterior margin expanded medially; epimeral plates 1-3 broadly rounded

Gnathopods 1,2 subchelate, gnathopod 1 propodus nearly 3 times as long as 3 preceding joints combined, carpus without any ventral projection, gnathopod 2 carpus with elongate narrow lobe; pereopods strongly setose; long plumose setae on basis and merus of pereopod 5 and basis of pereopod 6; pereopod 7 very long, dactylus and propodus equal in length

Telson entire, oval quadrangular

Habitat: clay, sand, stones, gravel

Mobility: mobile

Feeding:

Distribution: circumpolar, widely distributed in the arctic zone and northernmost part of boreal zone: Arctic Ocean, Alaska, Canadian Arctic, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Greenland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, Siberian seas, Bering Sea, Okhotsk Sea, Japan Sea, occurs mainly at depths less than 200m, occasionally recorded down to 1267m

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.

Gurjanova, E. F. 1951. Bokoplavy morjej SSSR I sopredel'nykh vod (Amphipoda - Gammaridea). Akad. Nauk SSSR, Opredel. Faune SSSR 41 , pp. 530-531.

Just, J. 1980. Amphipoda (Crustacea) of the Thule area, Northwest Greenland : faunistics and taxonomy. Meddr, Gronland, Biosci. 2 , pp. 34-36, 39-42.

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.

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. 292-293, pl. 103-104.

Stephensen, K. 1931. Crustacea Malacostraca. VII (Amphipoda III). Dan. Ingolf Exped. 3 (11) , pp. 230-232.

Stephensen, K. 1938. The Amphipoda of N. Norway and Spitsbergen with adjacent waters. Tromso Mus. Skr. 3(2) , pp. 205-207.

Stephensen, K. 1944. The zoology of East Greenland . Amphipoda. Medd. om Gronland. 121 (14) , pp. 66-68.

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.