Intertidal Marine Isopods - Synopses of the British Fauna

The isopods of the intertidal zone of Great Britain were published in a first edition by Naylor in 1972. Since then this volume of the "Synopses of the British Fauna" belonged in the field trip boxes of many universities. It was also frequently consulted in shallow water surveys of neighboring coastal regions and is among the most widely used isopod identification books in wet labs. After more than 40 years, a new edition of this work has been produced and scientifically updated. For some species the state of knowledge has not changed significantly, for others the systematics has been rearranged, and some species have been newly added and/or recorded in the region. The new edition is based on the first edition, but is much more comprehensive and represents the current state of knowledge of the systematics of the Isopoda of the British coastal regions.

Foreword

lt is difficult, now, to comprehend just how significant was the publication of the first edition of this Synopsis (Naylor, 1972). For the first time, it was possible to carry in one's pocket, an identification guide to all the British and Irish shore isopods - and afford to have an open copy beside one's microscope in a ' wet' laboratory. Truly it was a masterpiece and the stimulus to the compilation of many a fauna list. For some species, there has been little increase in knowledge during the last forty years and , therefore, little reason to change the original text or illustrations.

But that is not the case for all and we are grateful to Professor Brandt for bringing this iconic Synopsis up to date. Forty years ago, it was customary (and much cheaper) to group the illustrations onto as few pages as possible, with the inevitable consequence that the reader had to flip back and fo1th to relate text to illustration. The AIDGAP project, run by the Field Studies Council, through the ensuing years, established beyond any doubt that users prefer to be presented with text and illustration(s) visible on the same spread, so recent editions of the Synopses try to follow this layout.

This Second Edition is, therefore, a combination of recent information (where it was available) and the still-cun-ent material from the first edition presented in a more user-friendly manner.

• Naylor, E., Brandt, A. (2015): Intertidal Marine Isopods. Synopses of the British Fauna (New Series). Edited by J.H. Crothers and P.J. Hayward. Linnean Society of London, London, No. 3: 1-144. ISBN 978-1-908819-23-9.