Family LUCIFERIDAE De Haan, 1849

Museums

Regional Maps

• Luciferidae De Haan, W. 1849. Crustacea. 1-243 pls A-J, L-Q, 1-55, circ. tab. 2 in Von Siebold, P.F. (ed.). Fauna Japonica sive Descriptio Animalium, quae in Itinere per Japoniam, Jussu et Auspiciis Superiorum, qui Summum in India Batava Imperium Tenent, Suscepto, Annis 1823–1830 Collegit, Notis, Observationibus et Adumbrationibus Illustravit. Leiden : Lugundi-Batavorum. [242] [placed on the Official List of Family-Group Names in Zoology, see International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1969), but authorship attributed incorrectly to Dana (1850)].

  Type genus:

   Lucifer Thompson, 1829.

  Secondary source:

   International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1969. Opinion 864. Penaeid generic names (Crustacea, Decapoda): addition of twenty-eight to the Official List. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 25: 138-147.

Introduction

These tiny prawns appear in plankton, sometimes in large numbers, from shallow water to the surface waters of all temperate and tropical oceans. Their elongate shape, long neck, and dominant eyes make them immediately recognisable.

Because they lack so many basic dendrobranchiate features, like gills, their relationships to other families and even their inclusion in Dendrobranchiata itself have been questioned (Pérez Farfante & Kensley 1997). The presence of a petasma in males is the only feature uniting luciferids with dendrobranchiates but euphausiaceans possess this feature too. Loss of pereopods 4 and 5 is shared with some sergestids but is a dubious synapomorphy. Another unusual feature of luciferids is that females brood their eggs on pereopod 3; all other dendrobranchiates are broadcast spawners. The major taxonomic study of Hansen (1919) remained unchallenged until a significant revision by Vereshchaka et al. (2016).

Diagnosis

Body strongly laterally compressed; integument soft, stiff but not rigid. Rostrum absent. Postorbital spine absent. Without branchiae.

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

Hansen, H.J. 1919. The Sergestidae of the Siboga-Expedition. Siboga-Expéditie Report 38: 1-65 5 pls

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

Vereshchaka, A.L., Olesen, J. & Lunina, A.A. 2016. A phylogeny-based revision of the family Luciferidae (Crustacea: Decapoda). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 178: 15-32

History of changes