Infraorder AXIIDEA de Saint Laurent, 1979

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Infraorder AXIIDEA de Saint Laurent, 1979

Compiler and date details

May 2012 - Peter Davie, Queensland Museum.

Introduction

The infraorder Thalassinidea comprises ten families of Australian mud and coral 'lobsters', namely Axiidae Huxley, 1879, Callianassidae Dana, 1852, Ctenochelidae Manning & Felder, 1991, Gourretiidae Sakai, 1999, Laomediidae Borradaile, 1903, Micheleidae Sakai, 1992, Strahlaxiidae Poore, 1994, Thalassinidae Latreille, 1831, Thomassinidae de Saint Laurent, 1979, and Upogebiidae Borradaile, 1903. Together these comprise 46 genera and 107 species.

The work of Poore & Griffin (1979) is the foundation of the taxonomy of this group in Australia, but our systematic understanding has grown dramatically since its publication, with a number of workers across the world taking an active interest. Poore (1994) and Tudge et al. (2000), have provided excellent overviews and critical analyses of the relationships of the families and subfamilies within the infraorder. Other works reviewing and revising individual families and genera, are cited in their respective family introductions. Poore (1994) gave a key to superfamilies and families.

Thalassinideans occur in a wide variety of habitats from the intertidal zone to at least 2,500 metres depth, and range from species that burrow in estuarine mud banks to others living commensally in sponges and cavities in coral. Currently there are 516 species known worldwide (see Dworschak 2000). Amongst the largest and most dramatic of the thalassinideans are species of the nominotypical genus Thalassina, commonly known as mud or mangrove lobsters. These crustaceans are responsible for considerable bioturbation in tropical mangrove swamps through construction of their large and characteristic mud mounds.

Diagnosis

Reptant decapods without a thelycum in the female; with pereiopods 1–5 having the basis and ischium fused; with pereiopod 1 chelate and carpus-propodus articulation slight; pereiopod 2 chelate or simple; always with dense row of long setae on lower margin; pereiopod 3 simple; pereiopod 4 simple or subchelate; pereiopod 5 chelate or subchelate; without arthrobranch on thoracomere 1. (After Poore 1994).