Notes on the Ecology and Environmental Adaptations 
of the Terrestrial Amphipoda^ 
D. E. Hurley^ 
Of the few Crustacean groups which have 
achieved some degree of freedom from the 
marine or freshwater environment, the Am- 
phipoda have received least attention. The 
terrestrial Talitridae, to which family all of 
the terrestrial species belong, have been 
treated in various systematic papers but there 
is little else. The only nonsystematic work, 
to my knowledge, is contained in no more 
than four papers, those of Grimmett (1926), 
Birch and Clark (1953), Lawrence (1953), and 
Clark (1955). 
Reasons for this neglect are not hard to 
find. The distribution of the terrestrial species 
is limited to countries bordering the Indian 
and Pacific oceans and to the Pacific islands 
(Fig, 1). In these countries development of 
zoological studies along other than descrip- 
tive lines is relatively recent. It would not be 
unreasonable to suggest that only South 
Africa, Australia, and New Zealand have a 
terrestrial amphipod fauna of sufficient extent 
and variety to attract attention to their ecol- 
ogy and physiology. And, as Dresel and 
Moyle (1950) have commented, and I can 
confirm, the mechanical problems involved in 
experimental work with the Talitridae are 
considerable, due in particular to their very 
great agility and to their susceptibility to des- 
sication. This probably accounts for a general 
neglect of physiological work, even on littoral 
amphipods, when compared to the body of 
research on the closely related Isopoda. 
1 This paper is, in part, the result of studies carried 
out at Victoria University College, Wellington, New 
Zealand, during the tenure of a New Zealand Uni- 
versity Research Fund Fellowship. Manuscript received 
July 8, 1957. 
^ New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, Depart- 
ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, Wellington, 
New Zealand. 
Certainly, the difficulties in collecting ter- 
restrial amphipods are reflected in the two or 
three species previously described from New 
Zealand, in contrast to some 40 species or 
more of terrestrial Isopoda. These difficulties 
have been overcome to some extent in recent 
years by modern methods of collecting, and 
many of the observations made in this paper 
have resulted from the study of Berlese 
Funnel material. 
Considering the limited systematic work on 
terrestrial amphipods and the resultant lack 
of appreciation of their importance in the 
cryptozoic fauna, one might reasonably ex- 
pect other research to be somewhat delayed. 
Nevertheless, there is an open field in Pacific 
countries for studies on the ecology and 
physiology of terrestrial amphipods, particu- 
larly in relation to soil formation. Such 
studies, in association with work on other 
cryptozoic groups, e.g., millipedes and iso- 
pods, would be of considerable value in un- 
derstanding the conversion of leafmould and 
litter of Pacific forests into highly productive 
soil. 
The abundance of the cryptozoic fauna is 
often not fully realised. In one particular in- 
stance, the animals in a bag of leafmould of 
less than one cubic foot capacity from Ste- 
phens Island, New Zealand, more than half 
filled a 2-ounce jar, the bulk of weight being 
made up of a relatively small amphipod, 
Orchestia ruhroannulata. Similar large yields of 
Talitrus sylvaticus have been taken under 
hedges of African boxthorn and other plants 
in Taranaki, New Zealand. 
The abundance of Talitrus sylvaticus has 
also been noted in Australia, where it is wide- 
spread in tropical and subtropical rainforests. 
”In some rain forests near Sydney we have 
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SMITHSONIAN . pp » 4959 
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