Asellota | |
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Asellus aquaticus, Asellidae | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Isopoda |
Suborder: | Asellota Latreille, 1802 [1] |
Superfamilies | |
Asellota is a suborder of isopod crustaceans found in marine and freshwater environments.[2] Roughly one-quarter of all marine isopods belong to this suborder.[3] Members of this suborder are readily distinguished from other isopods by their complex copulatory apparatus. Other characteristics include six-jointed antennal peduncle, the styliform uropods (a character shared with some other isopod groups), the fusion of pleonites 5, 4 and sometimes 3 to the pleotelson, and absence of the first pleopod in females.[3][4]