دراسة تصنيفية لفصيلة Gammaridae من رتبة طرفية الارجل Amphipoda في مياه المنطقة الشاطئية للاذقية

The Gammaridae family belongs to the Gammaridea sub-class and to the Amphipoda class. These crustaceans play an important role in the food chains and networks. Also, They serve as a food source for the benthic fishes and other macrozoobentic invertebrates. They are also regarded as bio-indicators of pollution. This study has been carried out on five sites of the coastal region of Lattakia.(Borj alkasab, Ras Ibn Hani, Marine Research Institute, Meridian, and Shkayfat); the specimens (198n) have been collected from an offshore region of 5 m during 18 months .The objective of this study is to identify Gammaridae which are very abundant among algae, hydrozoans and tunicates, geared to contributing to the national project of biodiversity in the Syrian environment. Two species are reported: the first is Elasmopus (the first time ever to be reported in Syria), containing three species: E .pectenicrus, E. pocillimanus, E. Rapax (the first time ever to be reported in Syria); the second is Maera, containig one species (M . inaequipes).