Squat Lobsters and Porcelain Crabs (Galatheoidea)

Abstract

The abdomen of squat lobsters and porcelain crabs has symmetrically arranged segments. It is held loosely folded beneath the cephalotorax and cannot be easily fully extended. Native squat lobsters include all species belonging to the families Galatheidae and Chirostylidae. In these the body is lobster-shaped, the carapace usually quite pliable, the rostrum (rs, fig. 9.4>) well developed, the flagellum (fl) of the second pair of antennae long and thin, the chelae (ce) of the first pair of pereiopods (pr1) elongated and the abdomen is folded upon itself and, at most, only partly tucked beneath the cephalothorax (figs 9.2, 9.3, A).