Suborder: GAMMARIDEA  Latreille, 1802
Infraorder: Gammarida  Latreille, 1802
Family: Ampeliscidae  Kröyer, 1842
Genus: Byblis Boeck, 1871

Description:

Size: up to 25 mm

Colour: whitish with orange shading

Head elongate; front of head mottled with dark violet; two pairs of corneal eyes

Antenna 1 reaching only little beyond end of peduncle of antenna 2, peduncle article 1 short, article 2 slender and long; antenna 2 in female about 3 body length, last peduncle article shorter than preceding one; in male both antennae much longer, antenna 2 longer than body

Epimeral plate 3 posterodistal angle rounded

Gnathopods very slender; pereopods 3-4 propodus much longer than carpus, dactylus long and curved; pereopods 5-6 basis broad, carpus and propodus spinose, dactylus small; pereopod 7 basis with broad posterior lobe obliquely expanded, dactylus spiniform; uropod 3 rami sharply pointed, their opposite margins finely serrated

Telson short and rounded with small apical cleft

Habitat: silt, clay, sand

Mobility:

Feeding:

Distribution: Arctic Ocean, circumpolar, North Pacific, North Atlantic southerly limit about 55oN ; depths 3-575m

Distribution in Svalbard's fjords:

References:

Bellan-Santini, D., Dauvin, J-C. 1993. Distribution and phylogeny of the genus Byblis Boeck (Ampeliscidae); preliminary statement. Journal of Natural History 27, pp: 909-913.

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. 316-317.

Lincoln, R. J. 1979. British Marine Amphipoda: Gammaridea. Brit. Mus. (Natural History) , pp. 122-123.

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. 183-184, pl. 64.

Stephensen, K. 1925. Crustacea Malacostraca. VI (Amphipoda II). Dan. Ingolf Exped. 3 (9) , pp. 147-148.

Stephensen, K. 1935. The Amphipoda of N. Norway and Spitsbergen with adjacent waters. Tromso Mus. Skr. 3(1) , pp. 132-134.

Stephensen, K. 1944. The zoology of East Greenland . Amphipoda. Medd. om Gronland. 121 (14) , pp. 48-49.

Węsławski, J. M. 1990. Distribution and ecologyof 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.