Amphinomidae

Family Amphinomidae Savigny in Lamarck, 1818

This family is well represented in tropical waters and currently includes many so called “cosmopolitan species” including Eurythoe complanata (Pallas, 1766) which has recently been shown to represent at least three cryptic species (Barroso et al. 2010). Borda et al. (2012) discuss the taxonomic problems of the family.

The AM collections of amphinomids from Lizard Island includes representatives of many of these so called “cosmopolitan species” and detailed morphological and molecular studies are needed to resolve these suites.

Below are the species recorded from the Lizard Island region based on museum databases, but there are no published taxonomic papers. However there are many texts on the GBR which illustrate these often large and conspicuous species and provide names (eg. Hutchings et al. 2008). While their family affiliation is not in doubt, their correct identification is questionable as material is often identified only from photographs which rarely illustrate the diagnostic characters.

Some of the material collected during the recent CReefs expedition was fixed in alcohol and is suitable for molecular studies which are often needed together with morphological studies to resolve the taxonomy of this group.