Burkenroad, 1963
Members of the decapod Suborder Pleocyemata never possess dendrobranchiate gills. The females brood the fertilised eggs on their pleopods for some time and the larvae hatch at a stage later than nauplius, which stage has been passed within the egg membrane. The pleural lobe of the second abdominal tergite overlaps both the lobes of the first and the third tergite, this in contrast to the other decapod Suborder Dendrobranchiata, where the second lobe does not overlap.
Larval development in the Pleocyemata is metamorphic and includes zoea and megalopa. (See also Crustacean larval stages and Crustacealarvae).
Within the[l][m]Additional Text Keys[/m][r]Barnacles: key to larval stages[/r] Pleocyemata seven infraorders are recognised, all but one present in the North Sea. Those marked below (*) do not contain species with [l][m]Glossary[/m][r]pelagic[/r]pelagic adults.
¥ Infraorder Caridea (generally referred to as shrimps)
¥ Infraorder Stenopodidea* (not present in the area)
¥ Infraorder Astacidea* (crayfish and clawed lobsters)
¥ Infraorder Thalassinidea* (mud and ghost shrimps)
¥ Infraorder Palinura* (spiny lobsters and slipper lobsters)
¥ Infraorder Anomura (hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, mole and sand crabs)
¥ Infraorder Brachyura (true crabs)
Larval stages of Pleocyemata are not keyed out to species level in the present keys. However, identification to some extend at higher systematic level is made possible with the aid of published keys.
[Description after McLaughlin, 1980; Brusca and Brusca, 1990]