New records of Amphipoda Hyperiidea in associations with gelatinous zooplankton

Associations between Amphipoda Hyperiidea specimens and gelatinous zooplankton such as cnidarians, ctenophores or salps are known in the literature. It is well established that many hyperiids are intimately associated with gelatinous zooplankton during part or all of their life-cycles, and that the associations could be of commensal or of parasitic nature, sometimes very highly species-specific. Although conventional net sampling usually does not preserve evidence of these associations, 12 instances of association (I.A.) were found in nine of the 49 samples collected during the 'FINEP XI Cruise', carried out on the Southeast coast of Brazil (23–28 °S), in January 1980. Lestrigonus bengalensisGiles, 1887 (11 specimens) and Simorhynchotus antennarius(Claus, 1871) (one specimen) were found inside salps and siphonophores. The study of the nature of these associations is essential to the understanding of the evolution of the group.