The results of our taxonomical study on a large collection of benthic Ampeliscidae from different representative localities of the nearshore waters of Vietnam at different times, has enlarged and adjusted the previous data, and added new data, to give a comprehensive knowledge on the benthic Ampeliscid fauna of the Vietnam sea. | TẠP CHÍ SINH HỌC, 2013, 35(2): 140-152 AMPELISCID CRUSTACEANS (AMPHIPODA: GAMMARIDEA: AMPELISCIDAE) FROM THE VIETNAM SEA Dang Ngoc Thanh, Le Hung Anh* Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), VAST, *lehunganh@ ABSTRACT: Thirty-five species of the family Ampeliscidae, including 22 species of Ampelisca and 13 species of Byblis are listed for the near-shore waters of Vietnam. In the world, Ampelisca compreses more than 210 species and 83 species of Byblis. Ten species are newly recorded for the benthic Ampeliscidae fauna of the Vietnam sea, of which six new species are described, viz. Ampelisca dongnamensis; Ampelisca submisakiensis; Ampelisca talus; Ampelisca taynamensis; Ampelisca thaoae and Byblis caecus. Some remarks on their geographical distributions are presented in the paper. Keywords: Amphipoda, Ampeliscidae, distribution, new species, taxonomy, Vietnam sea. INTRODUCTION Amphipods, including benthic ampeliscids, have been poorly studied in the Vietnam sea. In some research studies [4, 13, 14] in the coastal brackish waters of Vietnam the Ampeliscidae has not been represented at all. Data on benthic Ampeliscidae from near-shore waters of the Vietnam sea first appeared in two research works of Imbach (1967) [6] and Margulis (1968) [8]. Imbach (1967) [6] reported ten species of Ampelisca and four species of Byblis from the results of a survey carried out in Nha Trang bay (Central Vietnam), at depth range of 7-40 m, in mud or mud - sandy sediments. Soon after Margulis (1968) [12], reported eight species of Ampelisca and eight species of Byblis from the results of the Vietnam-Soviet cooperative study on living resources of the Vietnam in Tonkin Gulf in 1960-1961. Materials collected at depths of about 100 m. In the above publications four species of Ampelisca and eight species of Byblis were described as new to science. According to Margulis (1968) [8], Ampeliscidae species are always the dominant group in Amphipoda benthic samples, .
