Zaramillidae Lowry & Myers 2016
Creators: name: Lowry, J. K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Amphipoda
Zaramillidae

description: Family Zaramillidae fam. nov.
(Fig. 1)
Type genus. Zaramilla Stebbing, 1888, original designation.
Habitat. Marine, epigean.
Included genera. Zaramilla Stebbing, 1888.
Diagnosis (based on world family database). Head, eyes ovate. Antenna 1 shorter than antenna 2; peduncular articles 1 and 2 not enlarged, not articulate; accessory flagellum absent. Antennae 1–2 calceoli present, apparently gammarid (type 1). Antenna 2 peduncular article 1 not enlarged. Maxilla 1 basal endite (inner plate) setose along medial margin. Maxilla 2 coxal endite (inner plate) with oblique setal row. Body laterally compressed. Gnathopods 1–2 subchelate. Pereopods heteropodous. Pereopod 4 with well-developed posteroventral lobe. Pereopods 5–7 merus and carpus expanded; dactylus long (more than half length of propodus), with short setae along posterior margin. Pereopod 5 coxa equilobate. Uropods 1–2 rami with short apical robust setae. Urosomites 1–3 free. Uropod 3 biramous; rami styliform; endopod subequal in length to exopod. Telson deeply cleft.
Habitat. Marine, epigean.
Remarks. If Zaramillidae has a gammarid type 1 calceolus, as illustrated by Stebbing (1888), then it is a geographically misplaced member of the mainly freshwater parvorder Gammaridira, superfamily Gammaroidea (along with Falklandellidae Lowry & Myers, 2012) and with some similarities to the Bathyporeiidae d'Udekem d'Acoz, 2011. It differs significantly from Bathyporeiidae as follows: mandible incisor dentate, curved (smooth, straight in Bathyporeiidae); molar triturative (non-triturative in Bathyporeiidae); maxilla 2 coxal endite with oblique setal row (oblique setal row absent in Bathyporeiidae); gnathopod 1 similar in form to gnathopod 2 (dissimilar in Bathyporeiidae); pereopods heteropodous (homopodous in Bathyporeiidae); pereopods 5–7 with broadened merus-carpus (narrow in Bathyporeiidae), dactyli long with setae along posterior margins (short, without setae in Bathyporeiidae); uropod 3 outer ramus 1-articulate (2-articulate in Bathyporeiidae), inner ramus subequal in length to outer ramus (inner ramus minute in Bathyporeiidae).
Without using strongly apomorphic characters such as the type 1 calceolus, apical setation of uropod 3 rami, pereopod 7 with setae along posterior margin the Zaramillidae is quite similar to the Gammaridae Latreille, 1802. This may be an artefact based on the high amount of morphological variation in the gammarids. They differ in significant characters such as: antenna 2 peduncular article 1 not enlarged in zaramillids (enlarged, bulbous in Gammaridae); labium inner lobes well developed (vestigial or absent in Gammaridae); pereopod 5 with coxa equilobate (with small anteroventral lobe in Gammaridae); pereopods 5–7 broad (narrow in Gammaridae), dactyli long with setae along posterior margins (dactyli generally short with few or no setae along margins); urosomites without dorsal setae (with small robust setae on urosomites 1–2 Gammaridae).
In fact Zaramillidae does not appear to have any close family affinities within the Gammaridira.
description: Published as part of Lowry, J. K., 2016, Zaramillidae, a new amphipod family from the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands (Amphipoda, Senticaudata, Gammaroidea, Zaramillidae fam. nov.), pp. 387-389 in Zootaxa 4169 (2) on pages 387-389, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4169.2.11, http://zenodo.org/record/272402