''Monocorophium'' is a genus of amphipod

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

Species

The genus ''Monocorophium'' comprises the following species: *'' Monocorophium acherusicum'' (Costa, 1853) *'' Monocorophium californianum'' (Shoemaker, 1934) *'' Monocorophium carlottensis'' Bousfield & Hoover, 1997 *'' Monocorophium cylindricum'' (Say, 1818) *'' Monocorophium insidiosum'' (Crawford, 1937) *'' Monocorophium josei'' Valério-Berardo & Thiago de Souza, 2009 *'' Monocorophium oaklandense'' (Shoemaker, 1949) *'' Monocorophium sextonae'' (Crawford, 1937) *'' Monocorophium steinegeri'' ( Gurjanova, 1951) *'' Monocorophium tuberculatum'' (Shoemaker, 1934) *'' Monocorophium uenoi'' (Stephensen, 1932)

''Monocorophium acherusicum''

''Monocorophium acherusicum'' is a small (5 mm) species. It is brown with a very short abdomen, and has three little spines on its enlarged second antennae. It has rows of hair on its anterior legs, which it uses to filter food from the water. It naturally occurs in Europe, but was introduced to harbours of Australia by travelling in the

ballast water Ballast is used in ships to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the hull. Insufficiently ballasted boats tend to tip or heel excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the vessel capsizing. If a sailing vessel needs to voy ...

of ships.

''Monocorophium insidiosum''

''Monocorophium insidiosum'' builds tubes of mud and detritus on weeds, usually in brackish shallow subtidal waters, such as brackish lagoons, ditches and rivers. ''C. insidiosum'' occurs on American and European coasts from southern Baltic to eastern Mediterranean of North and South, and around Japan, and may grow up to 5 mm long.

''Monocorophium sextonae''

''Monocorophium sextonae'' is 5 mm long and builds tubes of mud on algae, from shallow water up to 50 m deep. It occurs naturally in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, but was introduced into Plymouth,

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

in the 1930s. In the late 1970 it was introduced to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, possibly by natural means from Devon. It can also be found along the European coast from southern Norway to the Mediterranean.

References

Corophiidea {{Amphipod-stub