Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 118 1965 Number 3522 



MARINE AMPHIPODA OF THE FAMILY AMPITHOIDAE 

 FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



By J. Laurens Barnard 



Associate Curator, Division of Crustacea 



The family Ampithoidae is confined to littoral and sublittoral 

 marine depths of the world, generally in the canopies of kelp or 

 shallow rock bottoms where short-tufted algae grow. Being large- 

 bodied organisms, they are among the most conspicuous amphipods. 

 Indeed, the largest amphipod so far reported in shallow waters of 

 southern California is Cymadusa uncinata (herein a specimen 35 mm. 

 long). The world fauna supports eight genera (not including 

 Amphitholina, which was transferred to the Eophliantidae by 

 Gurjanova in 1958), but only two of these have been found in the 

 present collections, Ampithoe and Cymadusa. A fragmentary specimen 

 of a third genus, probably Paragrubia, has been found at Cayucos, 

 Cahf. 



The present collections consist of materials dredged by the Velero III 

 Oi* the Hancock Foundation, especially in the channel islands off 

 southern California, and materials of intertidal origin collected by 

 the writer and other workers from Cayucos to La Jolla, Calif. A few 

 samples collected by scuba diving have proved most valuable. There 

 is a need for more extensive diving exploration of kelp holdfasts and 

 canopies and other algal bottoms. 



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