Alternate Title

Three New Species of Melita (Crustacea: Amphipoda), with Notes on the Amphipod Fauna of the Apalachicola Estuary of Northwest Florida

Authors

Peter F. Sheridan, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Abstract

Three undescribed species of Melita have been collected in the Apalachicola estuary of northwest Florida. These new species, Melita elongata, M. longisetosa, and M. intermedia, are similar to and co-occur with M. nitida Smith, 1873, along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The new species of the nitida complex are yet unknown on the Atlantic coast north of Florida, although M. nitida occurs north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A key to the males of the species in the M. nitida complex is given.

Nineteen other amphipod species have been collected in the Apalachicola estuary, six of which are at present undescribed. The life history, abundance patterns and ecological attributes are given for each species to the limit of available information.

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.18785/negs.0302.02

Recommended Citation

Sheridan, P. F. 1979. Three New Species of Melita (Crustacea: Amphipoda), with Notes on the Amphipod Fauna of the Apalachicola Estuary of Northwest Florida. Northeast Gulf Science 3 (2).
Retrieved from https://aquila.usm.edu/goms/vol3/iss2/2