malacostracan

Size range and diversity of structure

Some decapod crabs have leg spans of more than three metres, and others weigh more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds). Some free-living members of the orders Amphipoda, Isopoda, and Stomatopoda are lobster-sized (25–30 centimetres [0.8 to 1 inch]); most, however, are medium (one to three centimetres) in size. Paleozoic and primitive extant taxa seldom exceed 10 centimetres in body length, and the adult stages of some parasitic and subterranean groups are very small (less than one millimetre).

Malacostracans have a fixed body plan of head, thorax, and abdomen. In the adult the head consists of five segments, the thorax of eight, and the abdomen typically of six (or rarely seven) unfused segments. The head supports paired compound eyes, two pairs of antennae, and three pairs of short, chewing mouthparts, each consisting of two branches. The eyes are usually pigmented and borne on movable stalks, but they are sessile on the sides of the head in isopods, amphipods, and members of some smaller groups. The first antennae (antennules) usually have two branches (three in the subclass Hoplocarida). The outer branch of the second antennae (antennal squame), which is usually flat and bladelike for elevation and swimming balance, has two segments in stomatopods and some mysids and one segment in syncarids and eucarids; it may be small or lost entirely in amphipods, isopods, and other bottom-dwelling or subterranean taxa. The first and second maxillae are short, with variable numbers of inner biting plates (endites) and often with outer lobes (epipodites), but the palps are short or lacking.

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Animal Group Names

From the hindmost (maxillary) segment projects a head shield, or carapace, which in primitive forms is large and covers the thorax, leg bases, and gill chamber. It may be fused to the dorsum of the thorax, as in the euphausiids, decapods, and other members of the superorder Eucarida, but it is variously reduced and fused only to the anterior thoracic segments in mysids or lost altogether in the isopods, amphipods, and syncarids.

The eight pairs of thoracic legs are typically biramous (two-branched). One or more pairs are modified for feeding in some groups. In free-swimming species all legs are similar in shape, and both branches are slender. In bottom-dwelling species, however, the inner branch has become a stiff walking limb, and the slender multisegmented outer branch is variously reduced (in hemicarideans) or lost altogether (in amphipods and isopods). In advanced, especially bottom-dwelling, malacostracans (such as lobsters), one or more legs are pincerlike.

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The abdomen bears on each but the last segment a pair of ventral, or ventrolateral, biramous limbs called pereopods, or pleopods, which are primarily used in swimming. In the males of all eucaridans, hoplocarids, isopods, some hemicarids and syncarids, and rarely some amphipods, the anterior one or two pairs may be specially modified for sperm transfer. In males of most mysidaceans, the fourth and fifth pleopods (and the first and second uropods of some amphipods) may be modified as claspers for holding the female during mating. The last abdominal segment (of all but the leptostracans) bears a pair of biramous uropods and a median plate, or telson. The uropods are usually setose and paddle-shaped in swimming taxa and form a broad tail fan with the telson for rapid propulsion. In benthic and subterranean species the uropods are often slender, elongate, and tactile in function. The telson is bilobed in juvenile syncarids, larval eucaridans, some mysids, and most amphipods but platelike in all other malacostracans.

Distribution and abundance

The class Malacostraca contains more than 29,000 living species and represents about half of all known crustacean species. It is the single largest group not only of marine arthropods but also of all fully aquatic arthropod taxa. Within the Malacostraca, Decapoda is the largest order, with more than 10,000 described species, followed by the orders Isopoda (10,000 species) and Amphipoda (6,200 species). The other major orders have fewer than 1,000 species each.

Most malacostracans are marine. Among the decapods, the ancient palinurans, their modern brachyuran (10-legged crab) derivatives, and the dendrobrachiate and stenopodid shrimps dominate in tropical and temperate marine shallows. The decapod caridean shrimps, astacidean lobsters and crayfish, and anomurans (hermits and eight-legged crabs), however, dominate in cold-water and polar regions, in the deep sea, and in continental fresh waters. The amphipods and isopods are also abundant along cold-water marine shores and in the abyss and have widely penetrated fresh waters. They are also widespread in underground waters and terrestrial environments. Stomatopods are largely confined to tropical marine shallows; tanaids and cumaceans are found mainly in the colder deeps; and mysids, though mainly marine, are also abundant in relicts of northern glacial lakes.