Amphipods (Amphipoda, from the Greek amphí, " on one side and another " and see, " 34 foot; ) they are an order of small malacostracans crustaceans includes more than 7,000 described species.Most amphipods are marine; Although a small number of species are limnic or terrestrial. Marine amphipods may be pelagic ( live in 41 water column; or benthic ( live on the seafloor ). Pelagic amphipods are eaten by seabirds, fish, and marine mammals. Amphipods land as the Talitridae live in the sand fleas, or on beaches.Distribution and vidaMuchas species of amphipods are pelagic mutualist or ( usually ) parasites, living in association with invertebrates Scyphozoa and Salps. Phronima is a relatively common genus of pelagic amphipods that kill and clean up the bodies of the Salp to live inside and take care of their young.Of the relatively few species of living free, the planctonicos amphipods, where the most abundant of all is Themisto gaudichaudii; He lives in the ocean, this Amphipod congregates in dense formations, being a voracious predator of copepods and other small zooplankton.The copepods, krill and Salps, mostly herbivorous, carnivorous Themisto is the most abundant member of the mesozooplancton in the Southern Ocean.
