Species online

Bonnet mushrooms Mycena

Mycena (Pers.) Roussel is a large genus of small saprotrophic mushrooms which comprises approximately 500 species, widely distributed in the world. It is a polyphyletic genus where comprehensive molecular analyses are needed to clarify the infrageneric classification and species circumscriptions. About 100 species have been recorded in Norway.

Phloeomana Redhead

Rhizocarpon, english version

Rhizocarpon is a genus of crustose, mainly rock-living lichenized fungi. Many are also lichenicolous, meaning they live as parasites on other lichens, either in an early stage after the spores have germinated in the thallus of the host or persistently in the host. There are around 150 species globally, of which 65 are found in Norway.

Insects

The insects encompass more than one million species, and are thus without comparison the largest group of organisms on our planet. The success of the insects is without doubt due to their wings, a trait which have evolved only four times in the history of life on Earth, and only once among the invertebrates.

Caddisflies Trichoptera

The caddisflies comprise a medium sized order of winged, holometabolous insects.

Cuckoo wasps Chrysididae

The Chrysididae are a group of cleptoparasitic and parasitoid aculeate wasps with a large number of rare and endangered species. The taxonomy of this group has long been confusing due to the similarity of species and extensive intraspecific variation.

Oribatid mites (Hornmidd)

The oribatid mites (Acari, Sarcoptiformes) are tiny arachnids. Another meaning of the word “mite” in English is, quite appropriate, “a very small amount“. In some ways the mites resemble spiders, for example do the nymphs and adults have 8 legs, and they molt, which means that they leave their “old skin“, during the development.

Small crustaceans in fresh waters

Key to the Amphilochidae of the northeast Atlantic

The key includes 17 of the 18 northeast Atlantic species: Apolochus brunneus (Della Valle, 1893) is excluded, as it is mostly Mediterranean, with a few uncertain registrations from the Atlantic side of Gibraltar.

Bubble shells Cephalaspidea

Cephalaspidea is an Order of marine gastropods molluscs with approximately 650 living species worldwide. The systematic composition of the group comprises 12 families and about 40–50 genera worldwide. The first studies about these molluscs in Norway date back to the first half of the 19^th century and presently (2014) it is estimated that between 40 to 45 species occur in the country.

Ribbonworms Nemertea

Nemerteans are vermiform animals with long, slender, soft, and contractile bodies covered by a ciliated epidermis. The name Nemertea is associated with the Greek seanymph Nemertes – daughter to Nereus, the God of Seas, and his wife Doris. In common, they are called “Ribbonworms”, referring to their ribbon- or threadlike looks.

Marine bristle worms in Norwegian ports

Marine bristle worms (Polychaeta, Annelida) are one of the most abundant and diverse groups of benthic invertebrates. So far (2021) close to 800 species have been found in Norway. This is a guide to the 20 most common species found in Norwegian ports. The aim of this guide is to provide diagnostic features and closely related species comparisons to aid the species identification of the ones you most likely encounter in Norwegian ports and marinas, but most likely also in some more natural environments.

Ampharetidae and Melinnidae

Ampharetidae and Melinnidae are families within the phylum Annelida, order Terebellida, suborder Terebellomorpha. Ampharetidae and Melinnidae are found in all the world’s oceans, and a few species of ampharetids occur in fresh water. They inhabit soft sediments from intertidal to abyssal depths but are, in general, more common in deep waters. 

Hydractiniidae L. Agassiz, 1862

Hydractiniidae is a family of marine hydrozoans (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) that contains approximately 120 valid species worldwide, 10 of which live in Norwegian waters. Hydractiniids are common and widespread, but most of them are small and often go unnoticed. Only a couple of species are easily encountered by beachgoers and scuba divers, in particular the club-headed hydroid (Clava multicornis) and the snail fur (Hydractinia echinata). Many hydractiniids live in association with other marine organisms and play important ecological roles as symbionts and predators, while other species are used in biomedical research as models for the study of cell communication and regeneration.