Suborder DENDROBRANCHIATA Spence Bate, 1888

Museums

Regional Maps

• Dendrobranchiata Spence Bate, C. 1888. Report on the Crustacea Macrura collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger 1873–1876, Zoology 24: 1-942, i-xc figs 1-76 pls 1-150.

Introduction

Dendrobranchiata are one of the two major divisions of the Decapoda – all fall within the other division, Pleocyemata. The Dendrobranchiata, therefore, are fundamentally different from all the others anatomically and ecologically. The essential anatomical character is found in the gills (branchiae) under the sides of the carapace. In dendrobranchiates, the gills, when present, are “dendrobranchiate” or composed or many branching filaments attached to a major stem. In pleocyemate decapods, crabs, shrimps, lobsters etc., the gills look like a stack of plates in a row along a main axis. The usual dendrobranchiate reproductive strategy also differs from that of the Pleocyemata. Eggs are released from the female and develop in the plankton until their time to settle. One family, Luciferidae, is exceptional in that the eggs are brooded by the female on pereopod 3. Crabs and their relatives brood their eggs by attaching them to setae on the pleopods until they hatch as zoeal larvae.

Dendrobranchiate shrimps, or prawns as edible penaeids are known in Australia, superficially look like caridean shrimps and in midwater and inshore benthic samples, examples of both often occur together. Carideans, besides having plate-like gills, differ from prawns in having the second pleonal pleuron (plate extending ventrally to shelter the pleopods) covering both the pleuron in front and behind. In dendrobranchiates, the pleura overlap like tiles, the first over the second, second over the third and so on. Also, dendrobranchiates have three pairs of chelipeds (pereopods 1–3 chelate, although minutely so) while caridean usually have two pairs of chelate pereopods, the second often enlarged as claws. If you observe an egg mass carried under the pleon, your specimen is not a dendrobranchiate.

Dendrobranchiate shrimps form the basis of the most important commercial shrimp fisheries. Pérez Farfante & Kensley (1997) published a major review of the group with keys to families and genera but this is now out of date; see Poore & Ahyong for the most recent treatment of all families and genera.

Diagnosis

Carapace more or less cylindrical, longer than wide; epistome short, not fused to basal antennular and antennal articles, lateral margins with narrow point of contact with carapace margins. Exoskeleton chitinised. Thoracic sternites 1–8 fused. Pleon elongate, muscular; pleura not over overlapping or overlapping next most posterior pleuron. Gills dendrobranchiate. Antennular penduncle articles aligned linearly, main flagellum long, lash-like, aesthetascs more-or-less evenly distributed. Pereopods 1–3 similar, usually chelate. Pereopod 5 of similar length to more anterior pereopods, longer than or reduced, or absent. Male pleopods 1 endopods joined to form petasma.

Diagnosis References

Poore, G.C.B.,& Ahyong, S.T. 2023. Marine decapod Crustacea. A guide to families and genera of the World. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing pp. 928.

General References

Pérez Farfante, I. & Kensley, B. 1997. Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world. Keys and diagnoses for the families and genera. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 175: 1-233

Poore, G.C.B.,& Ahyong, S.T. 2023. Marine decapod Crustacea. A guide to families and genera of the World. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing pp. 928.

History of changes