About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Decapoda

Encyclopedia : D : DE : DEC : Decapoda

For other meanings of decapod, see decapod.

The decapods or Decapoda are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimps, but also some families that are less well known.

Anatomy

As their name implies, all decapods have ten legs; these are the last five of the eight pairs of thoracic appendages characteristic of crustaceans. The front three pairs function as mouthparts and are generally referred to as maxillipeds, the remainder being pereiopods. In many decapods, however, one pair of legs has enlarged pincers; the claws are called chelae, so those legs may be called chelipeds. Further appendages are found on the abdomen, with each segment capable of carrying a pair of biramous pleopods, the last of which form part of the tail fan (together with the telson) and are called uropods.

Classification

Classification within the order Decapoda depends on the structure of the gills and legs, and the way in which the larvae develop, giving rise to two suborders: Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata. Prawns (including many species colloquially referred to as "shrimp", such as the Atlantic white shrimp) make up the Dendrobranchiata. The remaining groups, including true shrimp, are the Pleocyemata.

The following classification to the level of superfamilies follows Martin and Davis, with some changes based on more recent morphological and molecular studies.

Whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei
Enlarge
Whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

Spotted cleaner shrimp, Periclimenes yucatanicus
Enlarge
Spotted cleaner shrimp, Periclimenes yucatanicus

California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus
Enlarge
California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus

Australian land hermit crab, Coenobita variabilis
Enlarge
Australian land hermit crab, Coenobita variabilis

Blue crab, Callinectes sapidus
Enlarge
Blue crab, Callinectes sapidus

Lyreidus tridentatus
Enlarge
Lyreidus tridentatus

Order Decapoda Latreille, 1802

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Wikispecies has information related to:

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: