Suborder: GAMMARIDEA  Latreille, 1802
Infraorder: Gammarida  Latreille, 1802
Superfamily: Lysianassoidea  Dana, 1849
Genus: Lepidepecreum Bate & Westwood, 1868    

Description:

Size: up to 13 mm

Colour: red

Head without rostrum, lateral cephalic lobe produced, narrowly triangular, distally acute; eyes large, red

Antenna 1 short, peduncle article 1 strongly produced anterodistally, flagellum article 1 as long as 4 succeeding joints combined, accessory flagellum 3-articulate; antenna 2 slender, in female nearly as long as antenna 1, flagellum 8-articulate, in male flagellum multiarticulate with calceoli

Body robust, laterally bulged; dorsal side markedly carinate, pleon segment 3 and urosomite 1 with acutely upturned projection; coxal plates very large and deep, coxa 4 with slender and relatively long posteroventral lobe; coxa 5 broad, oval with distinct umbo; epimeral plate 3 nearly rectangular

Gnathopod 1 subchelate, slender, propodus with margins subparallel,; gnathopod 2 weakly chelate, carpus extended distally; pereopods 5-7 merus not expanded; uropod 3 inner ramus shorter than outer one, in female inner margins with few small spines, outer ramus with two setae, in male both rami with plumose setae present on inner margins

Telson triangular twice as long as broad, deeply cleft

Habitat: clay, sand, gravel, stones

Mobility:

Feeding:

Distribution: Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, East Greenland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, North Norway, depth range about 25-630.

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.

Gurjanova, E. F. 1951. Bokoplavy morjej SSSR I sopredel'nykh vod (Amphipoda - Gammaridea). Akad. Nauk SSSR, Opredel. Faune SSSR 41 , pp. 276-277.

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. 115-116, pl. 39.

Stephensen, K. 1925. Crustacea Malacostraca. VI (Amphipoda II). Dan. Ingolf Exped. 3 (9) , pp.117-118.

Stephensen, K. 1935. The Amphipoda of N. Norway and Spitsbergen with adjacent waters. Tromso Mus. Skr. 3(1) , p. 100.

Stephensen, K. 1944. The zoology of East Greenland. Amphipoda. Medd. om Gronland. 121 (14) , p. 37.

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.