Family GALATHEIDAE Samouelle, 1819

Galathea australiensis [from Grant & McCulloch 1906: pl. 4 fig. 1]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Galatheidae Samouelle, G. 1819. The Entomologist's Useful Compendium; or an introduction to the knowledge of British Insects, comprising the best means of obtaining and preserving them, and a description of the apparatus generally used; together with the genera of Linné, and modern methods of arranging the Classes Crustacea, Myriapoda, spiders, mites and insects, from the affinities and structure, according to the views of Dr. Leach. Also an explanation of the terms used in entomology; a calendar of the times of appearance and usual situations of near 3,000 species of British Insects; with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope. London : Thomas Boys 496 pp. 12 pls. [name corrected to Galatheidae by White, A. 1847. List of the Specimens of Crustacea in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum viii 143 pp.].

  Secondary source:

   White, A. 1847. List of the Specimens of Crustacea in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum viii 143 pp. [Date published Apr/1847].

Introduction

Galatheids are commonly known as Squat Lobsters, Craylets, and Lobster Krill. They are mostly relatively small and inconspicuous, although some can be spectacularly coloured, especially those living commensally on brightly coloured invertebrates. One of the most common and distinctive species is Allogalathea elegans (Adams & White), which lives camouflaged amongst the arms of feather stars (crinoids). Squat Lobsters are a significant component of the benthic fauna of coral reefs, free-living species often reaching large numbers on living and dead coral clumps. Other species are found in deeper waters of the continental slope, exceeding 500 metres in depth.

The Australian fauna has been relatively poorly studied, with the most important works being those of Grant & McCulloch (1906), Haig (1973) and Baba (1986, 1994).

The Galatheidae did not recover as monophyletic in the morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses of Rodríguez-Flores et al. (2022).

Diagnosis

Body depressed, symmetrical, more or less longitudinally ovate (somewhat shrimp-like); rostrum distinct, usually well developed and prominent, variable in form; eyes well developed, ocular acicles absent; epistome unarmed. Abdomen bent upon itself but not folded against thorax; third to fifth pleopods paired; male gonopods usually present but first gonopod often absent, female first pleopods absent; telson without a transverse fissure, divided into two or more smaller plates; uropods spatulate; tailfan not folded beneath preceding abdominal somites. First pereiopods chelate, greatly elongated, slender; fourth pereiopod ambulatory. Antennal peduncle 4-segmented; antennal scale lacking. Sternal plate of last thoracic somite well developed, but free from preceding one.

General References

Baba, K. 1986. Two new Anomuran Crustacea (Decapoda: Anomura) from North-west Australia. The Beagle. Occasional Papers of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences 3(1): 1-5

Baba, K. 1994. Deep-sea Galatheid Crustaceans (Anomura: Galatheidae) collected by the 'Cidaris I' Expedition off Central Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 35(1): 1-21

Grant, F.E. & McCulloch, A.R. 1906. On a collection of Crustacea from the Port Curtis District, Queensland. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 31(1): 2-53, text-figs 1-3 pls 1-4

Haig, J. 1973. Galatheidea (Crustacea, Decapoda, Anomura) collected by the F.I.S. Endeavour. Records of the Australian Museum 28(14): 269-289 figs 1, 2

Rodríguez-Flores, P., Macpherson, E., Schnabel, K., Ahyong, S., Corbari, L., & Machordom, A. 2022. Depth as a driver of evolution and diversification of ancient squat lobsters (Decapoda, Galatheoidea, Phylladiorhynchus). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 171: 1-19

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