Progress in the discovery of amphipod crustaceans

Abstract

At present, amphipod crustaceans comprise 9,980 species, 1,664 genera, 444 subfamilies, and 221 families. Of these, 1,940 species (almost 20%) have been discovered within the last decade, including 18 fossil records for amphipods, which mostly occurred in Miocene amber and are probably all freshwater species. There have been more authors describing species since the 1950s and fewer species described per author since the 1860s, implying greater taxonomic effort and that it might be harder to find new amphipod species, respectively. There was no evidence of any change in papers per author or publication life-times of taxonomists over time that might have biased apparent effort. Using a nonhomogeneous renewal process model, we predicted that by the year 2100, 5,600 to 6,600 new amphipod species will be discovered. This indicates that about two-thirds of amphipods remain to be discovered which is twice the proportion than for species overall. Amphipods thus rank amongst the least well described taxa. To increase the prospect of discovering new amphipod species, studying undersampled areas and benthic microhabitats are recommended.