Kingdom Animalia Subphylum Crustacea Scientific name Bodotriidae Rank Family | Phylum Arthropoda Order Cumacea Higher classification Cumacea | |
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Similar Cumacea, Crustacean, Nannastacidae, Cyclaspis, Diastylidae | ||
Bodotriidae is a family of crustaceans belonging to the order Cumacea. Bodotriidae is a family of crustaceans belonging to the order Cumacea. Bodotriids have a worldwide distribution in shallow and deep waters. There are over 380 described species in over 30 genera, being the most diverse cumacean family. Their external morphology is differentiated the one of other cumaceans by a combination of traits that independenlty are not unique to the family: telson fused to the last abdominal segment (last pleonite), dorsal part of the mandible has a boat shape (naviculoid), exopods on the third maxilliped and first peraeopod, and uropodal endopod with one or two articles.
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Anatomy
In both sexes the telson is fused with the last segment of the pleon, forming a "pleotelson". Males generally have five pairs of pleopods, although less often there may be three, two or they may be entirely absent. In females the second antenna is substantially shorter than the first. The third maxillipeds always have exopods (outer branches), and there are endopods (inner branches) on one or two segments of the uropods.
Diversity
Bodotriidae is divided into three subfamilies (Bodotriinae, Mancocumatinae, and Vaunthompsoniinae), although it has been suggested that Mancocumatinae belong to the Vaunthompsoniinae (Haye 2007):