[2] It is a herbivore and constructs a tubular nest-like home on a blade of the sporophyte of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera.

[1] Sunamphitoe femorata is a tubicolous (tube-forming) amphipod that feeds and makes its home on the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera.

The weaving process continues rhythmically at the rate of about 24 silk attachments per minute, alternately on the left and right sides of the blade, and a tube is formed.

The amphipod does not occupy the nest continuously but sometimes moves elsewhere on the host kelp, leaving a small grazing scar to show where it has foraged.

Researchers studying this amphipod (Cerda, Hinojosa & Thiel, 2012) hypothesised that the position chosen for the nest might be a location where the maximum nutritional value of the tissue coincided with a decrease in production of defensive chemicals by the alga.