The list of marine crustaceans of South Africa is a list of saltwater species that form a part of the crustacean (Phylum Arthropoda, several classes) fauna of South Africa. This list does not include the freshwater and terrestrial crustaceans. The list follows the SANBI listing on iNaturalist, and does not always agree with WoRMS for distribution.
Crustaceans (Crustacea /krʌˈsteɪʃə/ ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimps, prawns, krill, woodlice, and barnacles. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata; because of recent molecular studies it is now well accepted that the crustacean group is paraphyletic, and comprises all animals in the clade Pancrustacea other than hexapods. Some crustaceans (Remipedia, Cephalocarida, Malacostraca) are more closely related to insects and the other hexapods than they are to certain other crustaceans.
The 67,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm (0.004 in), to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 3.8 m (12.5 ft) and a mass of 20 kg (44 lb). Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates, by the possession of biramous (two-parted) limbs, and by their larval forms, such as the nauplius stage of branchiopods and copepods.
Most crustaceans are free-living aquatic animals, but some are terrestrial (e.g. woodlice), some are parasitic (e.g. Rhizocephala, fish lice, tongue worms) and some are sessile (e.g. barnacles). The group has an extensive fossil record, reaching back to the Cambrian, and includes living fossils such as Triops cancriformis , which has existed apparently unchanged since the Triassic period. More than 7.9 million tons of crustaceans per year are produced by fishery or farming for human consumption, most of it being shrimp and prawns. Krill and copepods are not as widely fished, but may be the animals with the greatest biomass on the planet, and form a vital part of the food chain. The scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology (alternatively, malacostracology, crustaceology or crustalogy), and a scientist who works in carcinology is a carcinologist. ( Full article... )
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Hippolytidae is a family of cleaner shrimp, also known as broken-back shrimp or anemone shrimp. The term "broken-back shrimp" also applies to the genus Hippolyte in particular and "cleaner shrimp" is sometimes applied exclusively to Lysmata amboinensis.
Gammaridea is one of the suborders of the order Amphipoda, comprising small, shrimp-like crustaceans. Until recently, in a traditional classification, it encompassed about 7,275 (92%) of the 7,900 species of amphipods described by then, in approximately 1,000 genera, divided among around 125 families. That concept of Gammaridea included almost all freshwater amphipods, while most of the members still were marine.
Oedicerotidae is a family of amphipods. It comprises the following genera:
Lysianassidae is a family of marine amphipods, containing the following genera:
Clibanarius is a genus of hermit crabs in the family Diogenidae. Like other hermit crabs, their abdomen is soft-shelled and sheltered in a gastropod shell. Typically marine like all their relatives, the genus includes C. fonticola, the only known hermit crab species that spends all its life in freshwater. The feeding rates of Clibanarius spp. change with temperature which, given their broad distributions, may have considerable consequences for the stability reef systems as sea temperatures rise in the future.
Orchestia is a genus of amphipods in the family Talitridae, containing the following species:
Leucothoe is a genus of amphipods in the family Leucothoidae. It contains the following species:
Alpheus is a genus of snapping shrimp of the family Alpheidae. This genus contains in excess of 291 species, making this the most species-rich genus of shrimp. Like other snapping shrimp, the claws of Alpheus are asymmetrical, with one of the claws enlarged for making a popping noise. Some species in the genus enter into symbiotic relationships with gobiid fishes, and others associate with sea anemones. It's also the noisiest of all sea creatures and can immobilize small fish with its high pitched frequency.
Sphaeromatidae is a family of isopods, often encountered on rocky shores and in shelf waters in temperate zones. The family includes almost 100 genera and 619 known marine species. Within these genera, there are groups that share distinctive morphologies; further research may reclassify these genus-groups as separate families.
Palaemon is a genus of caridean shrimp of the family Palaemonidae. The conventional circumscription of the genus Palaemon is probably paraphyletic. Molecular data suggest that Palaemonetes, as well as the genera Exopalaemon and Couteriella, are nested within Palaemon. Phylogenetic affinities in these groups correspond better with geographical origin than conventional genus assignments.
Talorchestia is a genus of amphipod of the family Talitridae, containing the following species:
Paramelita is a genus of crustacean in family Paramelitidae, containing the following species:
Potamonautes is a genus of African freshwater crabs in the family Potamonautidae. It is both the most widespread and most diverse genus of African freshwater crabs, including more than half the species of this continent. They are found in most freshwater habitats of the African mainland and some species are semi-terrestrial.
Photis is a genus of amphipod crustaceans, containing the following species:
Edward John Miers FZS FLS was a British zoologist and curator of the crustacean collection at the Natural History Museum in London. He contributed to the scientific reports from the Challenger expedition of 1872–1876, and described 32 new genera and at least 260 new species and subspecies of decapod crustaceans, along with four genera and 72 new species in other orders.
Neolithodes is a genus of king crabs, in the family Lithodidae. They are found in all major oceans, both in high and low latitudes. Although there are records from water as shallow as 124 m (407 ft) in cold regions, most records are much deeper, typically 700–2,000 m (2,300–6,600 ft), with the deepest confirmed at 5,238 m (17,185 ft). They are fairly large to large crabs that typically are reddish in color and spiny, although the size of these spines varies depending on species.
Ebalia is a genus of crab in the family Leucosiidae.
Ogyrididae is a family of decapod crustaceans consisting of 10 species.
Aega is a genus of isopods in the family Aegidae, containing the following species:
Thoridae is a family of cleaner shrimp, also known as broken-back shrimp or anemone shrimp.