Lucifer (prawn)

Lucifer
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Dendrobranchiata
Superfamily: Sergestoidea
Family: Luciferidae
De Haan, 1849
Genus: Lucifer
J. V. Thompson, 1829
Type species
Lucifer typus
H. Milne-Edwards, 1837 
Synonyms [1]

Leucifer

Lucifer is a little-known and degenerate genus of prawns, the type genus of the family Luciferidae.[2] Lucifer has a long body, but many fewer appendages than other prawns, with only three pairs of pereiopods remaining, all without claws. It also bears no gills.[3] The females, uniquely among prawns, carry the fertilised eggs on her pleopods until they are ready to hatch. This parallels the development of a similar system in pleocyemates, although the attachment is less strong in Lucifer.[3] The length of the eye-stalks and the form of the petasma are used in distinguishing the eight species from each other.

Two species are recognised:

Five nominal Lucifer species (L. chacei, L. faxoni, L. hanseni, L. intermedius, and L. penicillifer) have been reclassified in a distinct genus, Belzebub.[4]

References

  1. Thomas E. Bowman & Lipke B. Holthuis. "Lucifer or Leucifer: which spelling is correct?" (PDF). Crustaceana. 14: 216–217. doi:10.1163/156854068x00638.
  2. Sammy De Grave; N. Dean Pentcheff; Shane T. Ahyong; et al. (2009). "A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 21: 1–109.
  3. 1 2 Gary C. B. Poore & Shane T. Ahyong (2004). Marine decapod Crustacea of southern Australia: a guide to identification. CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 978-0-643-06906-0.
  4. Alexander L. Vereshchaka, Jørgen Olesen, Anastasia A. Lunina, 2016. A phylogeny-based revision of the family Luciferidae (Crustacea: Decapoda) Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 178: 15–32. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12398.
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