The systematics and ecology of the sub-order Gammaridea (Amphipoda), families Lysianassidae, Phoxocephalidae and Haustoriidae obtained from Wellington Harbour

Abstract

The work was first devised to cover the two orders Cumacea and Tanaidacea as little work had been done on these in New Zealand. However these orders did not possess the expected number of species and the Tanaidacea had specialised living conditions. Fortunately all Amphipoda were retained from the Wellington Harbour samples and these did show quite marked preferences to sediment habitats. The study was therefore devoted to the formidable task of separating out the well represented order. This task would have been impossible without the already extensive work done on them by Drs. Hurley and Barnard. The stations were chosen to cover the range of sediments shown for Wellington harbour in the survey published by the Oceanographic Institute of New Zealand (1966).