Peracarida Taxa and Literature

(Cumacea, Lophogastrida, Mysida and Tanaidacea)

by
Gary Anderson
The University of Southern Mississippi
email: Gary Anderson

Databases-

Purpose-

The objective of this project is to assemble in a single location relevant materials relating to the taxonomy, systematics, biology, and pertinent literature resources for selected taxa within the crustacean superorder, Peracarida. Taxa featured are the orders Cumacea, Lophogastrida, Mysida, and Tanaidacea.

Generally, compilations similar to those provided here were last published over a decade ago, and are now outdated. For example, complete summaries were assembled for the Tanaidacea (Sieg, 1983b), Mysidacea (Müller, 1993), and Cumacea (Bacescu, 1988a, 1992a). Also, a number of online resources provide information on various aspects of the biology and classification of these taxa. However, I am unaware of any which emphasize both classification and literature.

Database Statistics-

Instructions-

The databases can be accessed using the links above. The appearance and functionality of each database is similar to those for the Tanaidacea, for which general instructions are provided below. From the search page, both taxonomic and literature resources can be secured. Simply type the query term of interest into the appropriate field and then click the "Search Taxonomy" or "Search Literature" button as appropriate. Click on a header of the resulting Table if you wish to sort the records. Additional search tips are provided here:

1. If you are interested in conducting a "narrow search", such as obtaining a summary of information for a specific taxon (e.g., Apseudes africanus), type the query term(s) into the field at the top of the search page then click the "Search Taxonomy" button. You will be provided with a Table containing one or more rows, if the item is in the database. Click on the row of interest and then the "View Record" button. The record is designed to be printed on a single page, but scrolling of fields may be necessary to see additional content. Use the "New Search" or "View Table" button as appropriate. The arrow keys are useful for viewing the records in the table sequentially.
2. If you are interested in conducting a broader search (e.g., obtaining a list of all of the species of Apseudes in the database), type the key word into the first or second field on the search page then click the "Search Taxonomy" button. If you were to type the word, Apseudes, into the first field, a list of 67 species (including unnamed species, Apseudes sp.) would result; if you were to use the second field, the result would also include species for which Apseudes is a synonym (180 records).
3. If you are interested in obtaining a list of literature references in which the term of interest appears, type the key word into one of the citation fields near the bottom of the search page, then click the "Search Literature" button. At present, a search using the word Apseudes in the citation field would provide 1283 records. A search for Sars (author field) yields 47 records; a search for Sars (citation field) yields 654 records. (Disclaimer: Since not all references in the database have been annotated, such searches will likely not include many relevant references which have yet to be evaluated. Duplicate records will likely result from searches of literature.)

Assistance is Appreciated-

I would be grateful to receive suggestions, corrections, and additions, as well as current reprints regarding these taxa. Correspondence should be addressed to gary.anderson@usm.edu or Gary Anderson, 254 S. Main St., Attleboro MA, 02703, USA.

Acknowledgements-

A number of individuals have contributed significantly to this project. The aforementioned scholars (Sieg, Müller, and Bacescu) summarized information that I used as a basis for the initial assembly of the databases. Richard Heard, Wayne Price, and Tim Deprez made additional publications available, thus allowing significant updating of materials. Additionally, numerous scholars have provided current resources regarding their research (e.g., JŸrgen Guerrero-Kommritz, Magda Blazewicz-Paszkowycz, Kim Larsen, Roger Bamber, Graham Bird, Iorgu Petrescu, Karl Wittmann, Risto Väinölä, Kenneth Meland, and numerous others). Librarians at The University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and MBL (e.g., Bridget Reeves, Cathy Schloss, and Cathy Norton) made resources available through Interlibrary Loan and Rare Books Archives. Financial support for my efforts has been generously provided by The University of Southern Mississippi, National Science Foundation, and through a Karush Fellowship from MBL.

This page was last updated on July 4, 2008.

Some of the material herein is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0529749.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.