Australian and South African conicostomatine amphipods (Amphipoda: Lysianassoidea: Lysianassidae: Conicostomatinae subfam. nov.) Lowry, J. K. Stoddart, H. E. Zootaxa 2012 2012-03-27 3248 1 43 65 Lowry & Stoddart, 2012 Lowry & Stoddart 2012 [151,375,615,641] Malacostraca Lysianassidae Animalia Amphipoda 2 45 Arthropoda subFamily subfam. nov. Conicostomatinae   Diagnosis.Head partially covered by coxa 1 or completely covered by pereonite 1 and coxa 1. Epistome and upper lip fused. Maxilla 2 inner plate subequal in length to outer plate. Maxilliped coxa and basis enlarged; palp article 4 reduced or absent. Mouthpart bundle subconical. Gnathopod 1 simple; propodus small; dactylus slightly curved. Urosome compressed.  Included genera.  Acontiostoma Stebbing, 1888;  Amphorites  gen. nov.;  Conicostoma Lowry & Stoddart, 1983;  OcosingoJ.L. Barnard, 1964;  Scolopostoma Lowry & Stoddart, 1983and  Stomacontion Stebbing, 1899.   Remarks. Lowry & Stoddart (1983)also included in their ‘conicostomatid’ group the genera  Acidostoma Lilljeborg, 1865,  PhoxostomaK.H. Barnard, 1925,  ShackletoniaK.H. Barnard, 1931and  Socarnoides Stebbing, 1888( typespecies only). Further study has shown that these genera, although they do have conical or subconical mouthpart bundles, do not belong in the conicostomatine group;  Acidostomaand  Shackletoniahave recently been assigned to a new lysianassoid family, Acidostomatidaeby Lowry & Stoddart (in press);  Phoxostomaand  Socarnoidesremain for now in the subfamily Lysianassinae.  Phoxostomadiffers from conicostomatines in having the outer plate of maxilla 2 offset from the inner plate and in not having a compressed urosome.  Socarnoideshas a left lacinia mobilis, the epistome and upper lip separate and does not have a compressed urosome – all characters that exclude it from the conicostomatines. The genus  Stomacontionis problematic ( Lowry & Stoddart 1983; Rauschert 1997). It has in the past contained too much generic level variability. One set of species formerly considered in the genus contain a synapomorphy in the form of a vase-shaped palp on maxilla 1. In this paper we remove these taxa to the new genus  Amphoritesand this appears to stabilise the  Stomacontionconcept. The very poorly known taxon,  Stomacontion capenseK.H. Barnard, 1916, cannot be placed in a genus and is considered as incertae sedis. It is possible that  S. insigneand  S. bulbusare synonyms.