A new look for Tasmania's terrestrial amphipods (sandhoppers, beachfleas and landhoppers)

摘要

The Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, who wrote major works on the Amphipoda around the turn of the 19~(th) century, had no illusions about their popular appeal: 'No panegyrist of the Amphipoda has vet been able to evoke anything like popular enthusiasm in their favour. To the generality of observers they arc only not repelled because the glance which falls upon them is unarrested, ignores them, is unconscious of their presence' (Stebbing 1899). While the readership of The Tasmanian Naturalist might not be quite so unmoved, there's no doubt that freshwater and terrestrial crustaceans do not figure as highly in the invertebrate natural history stakes as the insects. Most Tasmanian naturalists are aware of freshwater crayfish, and Photograph: Maria Moore). land slaters (woodlice, roly-polies, tiggyhogs, parson's pigs, grammersows ...) are generally recognised (if only the introduced European species). But terrestrial amphipods, or landhoppers (Plate 1), move off so quickly from under that flowerpot in the garden, or in forest leaf litter, that there's little opportunity to observe them closely, or take a photograph, and so their public profile remains sadly low.