Ectinosomatidae is a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of the Harpacticoida

Harpacticoida

Harpacticoida is an order of copepods, in the Subphylum Crustacea. This order comprises 463 genera and about 3,000 species. Members of it are benthic copepods found throughout the world in the marine environment and in fresh water...

, a huge group of crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s belonging to the subclass

Class (biology)

In biological classification, class is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, and species, with class fitting between phylum and order...

 Copepod

Copepod

Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...

a. Like most of their relatives, they are usually benthic inhabitants of marine environments. Ectinosomatidae commonly inhabit sediment

Sediment

Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....

 and fragments of dead coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

s or glass sponges, and occasionally algae and bryozoa

Bryozoa

The Bryozoa, also known as Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals, are a phylum of aquatic invertebrate animals. Typically about long, they are filter feeders that sieve food particles out of the water using a retractable lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles lined with cilia...

ns, in the deep ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

s. In the epifaunal species, the first leg pair is often modified to allow the animals a better grip on the substrate.

Genera

More than 20 genera are included in the family:

• Arenosetella C. B. Wilson, 1932
• Bradya Boeck, 1872
• Bradyellopsis Brian, 1923
• Chaulionyx Kihara & Huys, 2009
• Ectinosoma Boeck, 1865 (including Helectinsoma)
• Ectinosomella G. O. Sars, 1910
• Ectinosomoides Nicholls, 1945
• Glabrotelson Huys in Kihara & Huys, 2009
• Halectinosoma Lang, 1944 (including Pararenosetella)
• Halophytophilus Brian, 1919 (including Alophytophilus)
• Hastigerella Nicholls, 1935
• Klieosoma Hicks & Schriever, 1985
• Microsetella Brady & Robertson, 1873
• Noodtiella Wells, 1965 (including Lineosoma)
• Oikopus Wells, 1967
• Parabradya Lang, 1944
• Peltobradya Médioni & Soyer, 1967
• Pseudectinosoma Kunz, 1935
• Pseudobradya G. O. Sars, 1904
• Rangabradya Karanovic & Pesce, 2001
• Sigmatidium Giesbrecht, 1881
• Tetanopsis Brady, 1910