Sphaeromatidae is a family of isopods, often encountered on rocky shores and in shelf waters in temperate zones.[1] The family includes almost 100 genera and 619 known marine species (and about 65 in fresh water). Within these genera, there are groups that share distinctive morphologies; further research may reclassify these genus-groups as separate families.[2]
Description
Many species have a dorsoventrally compressed body shape, often with a vaulted dorsum, and some are strongly flattened (scale-like).[2]
Ecology
Sphaeromatidae are browsers or detritus feeders. Xynosphaera appear to have incisory mandibles;[2]Xynosphaera colemani burrows into the tissue of alcyonacean corals.[3] Some genera of Sphaeromatidae associate with sponges, particularly Oxinasphaera.[4]
^Poore, Gary CB; Lew Ton, Helen M; Bruce, Niel L. (2002). "Sphaeromatidae Latreille, 1825". In Poore, Gary C. B. (ed.). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 19. Csiro Publishing. p. 221.
^Bruce NL (2003) New genera and species of sphaeromatid isopod crustaceans from Australian marine coastal waters. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 60: 309–370.
^Bruce NL (1997) Order Isopoda. Sea Lice. In: Richmond MD, editor. A guide to the seashores of eastern Africa and the western Indian Ocean Islands: SIDA/SAREC. pp. 198–201.
^Niel L. Bruce & Marilyn Schotte (2011). M. Schotte; C. B. Boyko; N. L. Bruce; G. C. B. Poore; S. Taiti & G. D. F. Wilson (eds.). "Sphaeromatidae". World Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial Isopod Crustaceans database. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
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