Family POLYCHELIDAE Wood-Mason, 1875

Stereomastis nana [from de Man 1916: pl. 1 fig. 2]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Polychelidae Wood-Mason, J. 1875. On the genus Deidamia Willemoes-Suhm. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4 15: 131-135 [132].

Introduction

The peculiar looking crustaceans grouped in this small family are known collectively as 'blind lobsters' because their eyes are greatly reduced and non-pigmented. They are found only in deep water from about 200 to more than 2000 metres. Four genera occur in Australian waters. They were studied by Griffin & Stoddart (1995), Galil (2000) and Ahyong (2012). Ahyong (2009) reviewed the systematics and phyogeny of the family, and resurrected Stereomastis from synonymy with Polycheles.

Diagnosis

Small to moderate-sized, more or less flattened, deep water lobsters. Carapace with rostrum lacking or rudimentary; eyes small, cornea lacking pigmentation; antennae fine, shorter than body length. First four pairs of pereiopods chelate; first pair long, relatively slender, chelae swollen. Tailfan entirely calcified; telson pointed. (After Chan 1998).

General References

Ahyong, S.T. 2009. The polychelidan lobsters: Phylogeny and systematics (Polychelida: Polychelidae). In: Martin, J. W., Crandall, K. A. & Felder, D. L. (Eds).Crustacean Issues 18: Decapod Crustacean Phylogenetics. Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. pp. 369–396

Ahyong, S.T. 2012. Polychelid lobsters (Decapoda: Polychelida: Polychelidae) colelcted by the CIDARIS expeditions off Central Queensland, with a summary of Australian and New Zealand distributions. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature 56(1): 1-8

Chan, T.-Y. 1998. Lobsters. pp. 973-1043 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 2 687-1396 pp.

Galil, B.S. 2000. Crustacea Decapoda: Review of the genera and species of the family Polychelidae Wood-Mason, 1874. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 184: 285-387

Griffin, D.J.G. & Stoddart, H.E. 1995. Deep-water decapod Crustacea from eastern Australia: lobsters of the families Nephropidae, Palinuridae, Polychelidae and Scyllaridae. Records of the Australian Museum 47(3): 231-263 [Date published 1 December 1995]

History of changes