Phyllognathopodidae, Gurney, 1932

Wells, J. B. J., 2007, An annotated checklist and keys to the species of Copepoda Harpacticoida (Crustacea), Zootaxa 1568 (1), pp. 1-872 : 657

Family Phyllognathopodidae

The question of how many species are included in Phyllognathopus is unresolved (see Checklist Note 31, p. 84). This key follows the review by Karanovic & Ranga Reddy (2004a).

Phyllognathopus vigueiri , together with the species currently treated as synonyms, is distributed world wide in temperate and tropical latitudes. There is considerable variation, often rather subtle in nature, and often within small populations.

This points to the possibility that the species, as now understood, is in reality a complex of groups of closely related cryptic morphospecies. Unfortunately, few of the descriptions currently in the literature provide sufficient detail for a proper analysis of this probability.