A richly illustrated natural history of the world's crabs that examines their diversity, ecology, anatomy, behavior, and more This lavishly illustrated book offers a remarkable look at the world's crabs. More than 7,000 crab species, in 100 different families, are known today. Their unique physiology and complex behaviors have made them one of the most diverse and adaptable of all animal groups. They can thrive in the darkness of abyssal seas, on the edges of scalding hot volcanic hydrothermal vents, on sunlit coral reefs, on wave-washed rocky shores, and in tropical rain forests at the tops of mountains. They even persist in some of the harshest desert conditions. Playing a vital role in marine and coastal ecology, crabs have been identified as keystone species in habitats such as coral reefs and coastal tropical swamps. Crabs comprises five chapters: evolutionary pathways; anatomy and physiology; ecology; reproduction, cognition, and behavior; and exploitation and conservation. Individual chapters include a variety of subtopics, each illustrated by exceptional images, and followed by numerous double full-page species' profiles. Each profile has been chosen to emphasize remarkable and intriguing aspects of the life of these fascinating creatures. Some species may be familiar, but many are beyond anything you have probably seen before and will stretch your understanding of what a crab is. Written by a world authority, Crabs offers an accessible overview of these fascinating crustaceans. More than 190 spectacular color photographs Accessible and well-organized chapters Full profiles on 42 iconic species from across the world

In August 1988. the Sixth International Coral Reef Symposium was held in Townsville resulting in an influx of most of the world's coral reef sCientists to the city. We seized this opportunity at the Australian Institute of Marine Science to run a small workshop immediately before the symposium on the outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish. Aeanthaster planei. We invited that small band of mathematicians who had been modelling the phenomenon, (and who may not have normally attended an international meeting so thoroughly dedicated to natural science) to meet with those SCientists who had been been actively working on the phenomenon in the field. John Casti notes in his delightful new book Alternate Realities (Wiley, 1989): 'If the natural role of the experimenter is to generate new observables by which we know the processes of Nature, and the natural role of the mathematician is to generate new formal structures by which we can represent these processes. then the system SCientist finds his niche by serving as a broker between the two. ' I think our book shows the fruits of that brokerage through the wide range of models explored within its pages. the high level of collaboration and interaction across disciplines evident in the individual papers, and in the emerging synthesis that reflects a far deeper understanding of this complex phenomenon than was possible even a few years ago.

When [ teach my undergraduate course in these animals belong together, and we nowlearn that Crustacea at the University of Copenhagen [always they may even encompass the speciose insects. With or tell my students: " Now, if on reading through the without insects the Crustacea are therefore unquestion- chapter on Crustacea you wonder, what could pos- ably one of the most important animal groups. Is this sibly be said in common about these animals, you why we study them? I think not. Our fascination with havegot it exactly right! Indeed, there is next to noth- Crustacea is even deeper rooted and not easily ana- ing that unite them". Crustaceans range in size from lyzed. But one thing is important to me in this context. much below millimeter size to the giant king crabs; As Ibrowse through aU the papers in this book it brings in morphology from the almost stereotyped segment up the memoryofthe highlyrewarding Summer Meet- repetition ofthe Remipedia to animals with a highly The Crustacean Society held in 2000 in Puerto ing of diverse array of appendages such as the Decapoda; Vallarta, Mexico, where I had the privilege to serve as in life form from suspension feeding anostracans to its president.

This volume provides an abundance of valuable first-hand information about the diversity, biology, ecology culture of the portunid crabs of the word seas. Marine crabs play an important role directly or indirectly in the livelihood of millions of people around the world. They have been reported to make up about 20% of all marine crustaceans caught, farmed, and consumed worldwide. Among these marine crabs, portunid crabs (or swimming crabs of the family Portunidae) assume greater significance in the marine industry, owing to their delicate meat with nutritional qualities. Although several species of portunid crabs are edible and commercially important, only a few species have been widely cultivated. This is largely due to the lack of information on the biology of portunid crabs. Keeping this in view, this volume presents the biology and aquaculture of marine portunid crabs. This volume will be of great use for researchers and students of disciplines such as fisheries science, marine biology, aquatic biology and fisheries, and zoology, and will also serve as a standard reference for college, university, and research libraries around the world.

This is the eighth volume of a ten-volume series on The Natural History of the Crustacea. The volume examines Evolution and Biogeography, and the first part of this volume is entirely dedicated to the explanation of the origins and successful establishment of the Crustacea in the oceans. In the second part of the book, the biogeography of the Crustacea is explored in order to infer how they conquered different biomes globally while adapting to a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial conditions. The final section examines more general patterns and processes, and the chapters offer useful insight into the future of crustaceans.

Their story began 500 million years ago, but we only started to get to know them in 1746, when Linne described the first ostracod species. Vividly portraying the freshwater ostracods, this comprehensive reference work gathers the knowledge gained during some 250 years, but which to date has remained scattered throughout the literature. It starts with an introduction to the class Ostracoda with a special focus on freshwater ostracods and highlights practical methods in their study. The systematic part includes an introduction to all families; identification keys for all subfamilies, genera and species; diagnoses for each subfamily and genus; and lists of synonyms and distribution of species. The text is richly illustrated with distribution maps, line drawings of key generic characteristics, and numerous SEM photographs. Serving as an excellent starting point for all further research on freshwater ostracods, it can be widely used not only by ostracodologists, but also by crustaceologists, evolutionists and ecologists.

The authors are two of the best taxonomic experts in crustacean decapods, who have established the actual taxonomy and systematic of numerous and important groups of decapods. They have introduced new views and approaches on the taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of these crustaceans. This international edition adds diagnoses and identification keys to all world families and genera: this information simply doesn't exist in any other book. During the last decade, the world register of marine species (WORMS) has created the list of known species and promoted the publication of numerous compilations on crustacean decapods. However, except specialists of each taxa, very few colleagues can identify correctly the new families and genera - there are no keys to these new groups. This book is the first to contain these world keys and is therefore a life rope for students, marine biologists, taxonomists and naturalists. The mixture of taxonomic line drawings, color illustrations and images of real-life specimens is extremely helpful for identification, especially when working in the field.

The crustaceans are ecologically and economically important organisms. They constitute one of the dominant invertebrate groups on earth, particularly within the aquatic realm. Crustaceans include some of the preferred scientific model organism, profitable aquaculture specimen, but also invasive nuisance species threatening native animal communities throughout the world. Chemoreception is the most important sensory modality of crustaceans, acquiring important information about their environment and picking up the chemical signals that mediate communication with conspecifics. Significant advances have been made in our understanding of crustacean chemical communication during the past decade. This includes knowledge about the identity, production, transfer, reception and behavioral function of chemical signals in selected crustacean groups. While it is well known that chemical communication is an integral part of the behavioral ecology of most living organisms, the intricate ways in which organisms allocate chemicals in communication remains enigmatic. How does the environment influence the evolution of chemical communication? What are the environmental cues that induce production or release of chemicals? How do individuals economize production and utilization of chemicals? What is the importance of molecule specificity or mix of a molecule cocktail in chemical communication? What is the role of chemical cues in multimodal communication? How does the ontogenetic stage, the sex or the physiological status of an individual affect its reaction to chemical cues? Many of these questions still represent important challenges to biologists.

This second volume in the Natural History of the Crustacea series examines how crustaceans-the different body shapes and adaptations of which are described in volume 1-make a living in the wide range of environments they inhabit, and how they exploit food sources. The contributions in the volume give synthetic overviews of particular lifestyles and feeding mechanisms, and offer a fresh look at crustacean life styles through the technological tools that have been applied to recent crustacean research. These include SEM (scanning electron microscope) techniques, micro-optics, and long-term video recordings that have been used for a variety of behavioral studies. The audience will include not only crustacean biologists but evolutionary ecologists who want to understand the diversification of particular life styles, ecologists who follow the succession of communities, biogeochemists who estimate the role of crustaceans in geochemical fluxes, and biologists with a general interest in crustaceans.

Terrestrial hermit crabs are among the most widespread beach-dwelling organisms with key ecological functions but receive only very limited research attention. Sebastian Steibl demonstrates how physical parameters shape their overall distribution, presents a possible mechanism for their speciation and coexistence and shows for the first time how different human activities can have a major impact on their populations. The author points out that terrestrial hermit crabs, due to their conspicuous behavior to utilize shells, are a good model to study mechanisms of competition and coexistence in natural populations. Furthermore, they are suitable indicator organisms to assess human impact, as they respond differently depending on the type of anthropogenic disturbance. About the Author: Sebastian Steibl is a PhD student at the Institute of Animal Ecology at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. In his actual PhD research, he builds up on the presented work to investigate the architecture as well as functionality of small insular ecosystems and to analyze how different anthropogenic disturbances impact those ecosystem processes.

Crustacean Nervous Systems and their Control of Behavior is the third volume of the series The Natural History of the Crustacea. This volume is on the functional organization of crustacean nervous systems, and how those nervous systems produce behavior. It complements other volumes on related topics of feeding biology, reproductive biology, endocrine systems, and behavioral ecology. There is a rich history of the study of the neurobiology of crustaceans, going back over 150 years. This has included studies on how their nervous systems allow them to perform behaviors that are adapted to their particular environments, as well as studying them as model organisms to understand basic biomedical principles about neural function, such as sensory transduction and processing, synaptic transmission and integration, neuromodulation, and learning and memory. The volume has three sections that build progressively on each other. The first section is on the basic organizational features of the crustacean nervous system and the principles upon which it is built. The second section is on sensory ecology - the organization of each sensory system and how it is used in intra- and interspecific interactions, within an ecological context. The third section uses case studies of how crustacean nervous systems are organized to perform complex behaviors and interactions, such as walking, escape, social interactions, and memory and learning. Taken together, the 20 chapters synthesize our modern understanding of the neural control of behavior in crustaceans, based on the most recent technologies in physiological recording, molecular biology, and computational science. This volume will be useful to students and researchers as a concise summary of current knowledge of crustacean neuroscience.

The crustaceans are ecologically and economically important organisms. They constitute one of the dominant invertebrate groups on earth, particularly within the aquatic realm. Crustaceans include some of the preferred scientific model organism, profitable aquaculture specimen, but also invasive nuisance species threatening native animal communities throughout the world. Chemoreception is the most important sensory modality of crustaceans, acquiring important information about their environment and picking up the chemical signals that mediate communication with conspecifics. Significant advances have been made in our understanding of crustacean chemical communication during the past decade. This includes knowledge about the identity, production, transfer, reception and behavioral function of chemical signals in selected crustacean groups. While it is well known that chemical communication is an integral part of the behavioral ecology of most living organisms, the intricate ways in which organisms allocate chemicals in communication remains enigmatic. How does the environment influence the evolution of chemical communication? What are the environmental cues that induce production or release of chemicals? How do individuals economize production and utilization of chemicals? What is the importance of molecule specificity or mix of a molecule cocktail in chemical communication? What is the role of chemical cues in multimodal communication? How does the ontogenetic stage, the sex or the physiological status of an individual affect its reaction to chemical cues? Many of these questions still represent important challenges to biologists.

Crustaceans are increasingly used as model organisms in all fields of biology, including neurobiology, developmental biology, animal physiology, evolutionary ecology, biogeography, and resource management. One reason for the increasing use of crustacean examples is the wide range of phenotypes found in this group and the diversity of environments they inhabit; few other taxa exhibit such a variety of body shapes and adaptations to particular habitats and environmental conditions. A good overview of their functional morphology is essential to understanding many aspects of their biology. This volume is the first in The Natural History of Crustacea series, a ten-volume series that will treat all aspects of crustacean biology, physiology, behavior, and evolution. The series updates and synthesizes a growing wealth of information on the natural history of this remarkable group. Functional Morphology and Diversity explores the functional morphology of crustaceans, which cover the main body parts and systems. The book brings together a group of internationally recognized-and up-and-coming-experts in fields related to systematics and morphology. Contributing authors study a range of crustacean taxa and topics, and thus the volume provides a compact overview of the great phenotypic diversity and their function found among crustaceans. The first broad treatment of Crustacea in decades, the book will be invaluable for researchers and students in this and related fields.

The Crustacea is one of the dominant invertebrate groups, displaying staggering diversity in form and function, and spanning the full spectrum of Earth's environments. Crustaceans are increasingly used as model organisms in all fields of biology, as few other taxa exhibit such a variety of body shapes and adaptations to particular habitats and environmental conditions. Physiological Regulation is the fourth volume in The Natural History of the Crustacea series, and the first book in over twenty-five years to provide an overview of the comparative physiology of crustaceans. An understanding of physiology is crucial to a comprehension of the biology of this fascinating invertebrate group. Written by a group of internationally recognized experts studying a wide range of crustacean taxa and topics, this volume synthesizes current research in a format that is accessible to a wide scientific audience.

Jocelyn Crane presents a survey of the members of the genus Uca, with special reference to their morphology, social behavior, and evolution. Her account is firmly based on numerous field studies along the world's warmer shores and on comparative work in laboratories and museums. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Geerat Vermeij wrote this "celebration of shells" to share his enthusiasm for those supremely elegant creations and what they can teach us about nature. Most popular books on shells emphasize the identification of species, but Vermeij uses shells as a way to explore major ideas in biology. How are shells built? How do they work? How did they evolve? The author lucidly and charmingly demonstrates how shells give us insights into the lives of animals in our own day as well as in the distant geological past.

Jocelyn Crane presents a survey of the members of the genus Uca, with special reference to their morphology, social behavior, and evolution. Her account is firmly based on numerous field studies along the world's warmer shores and on comparative work in laboratories and museums. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In this book, the authors discuss the structure, ecology and life cycle of crustaceans. Topics include the structure, development and evolution of crustacean eyes; the effect of gamma radiation on the extraction of chitosan from the exoskeleton of crustaceans; lipid transport and metabolism in crustaceans; and soft-bottom crustacean assemblages influenced by anthropogenic activities in the Arabian Gulf.

This book presents topical research in the study of the anatomy, habitat and ecological significance of crabs. Topics discussed in this compilation include the different species of crabs and viral susceptibility; distribution and habitat of cold water crab species on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland; behavioural differences in fiddler crabs; cellular cadmium transport in gills and hepatopancreas of the mangrove crab and invasive swimming crabs.

What is a crab? What significance do crabs play in the world? In Crab, Cynthia Chris discovers that these charming creatures are social by nature, creative problem-solvers, and invaluable members of the environments in which they live. Their formidable physical forms, their hard-to-harvest and quick-to-spoil flesh, and their sassy demeanour have inspired artists and writers from Vincent van Gogh to Jean-Paul Sartre. Cynthia Chris sketches vivid portraits of these animals, tracing the history of the crab through its ancient fossil record to its essential role in protecting its own habitats from the threat of climate change.

Visitors to tropical forests generally come to see the birds, mammals, and plants. Aside from butterflies, however, insects usually do not make it on the list of things to see. This is a shame. Insects are everywhere, they are often as beautiful as the showiest of birds, and they have a fascinating natural history. With their beautifully illustrated guide to insects and other arthropods, Paul E. Hanson and Kenji Nishida put the focus on readily observable insects that one encounters while strolling through a tropical forest in the Americas. It is a general belief that insects in the tropics are larger and more colorful than insects in temperate regions, but this simply reflects a greater diversity of nearly all types of insects in the tropics. On a single rainforest tree, for example, you will find more species of ant than in all of England.Though written for those who have no prior knowledge of insects, this book should also prove useful to those who study them. In addition to descriptions of the principal insect families, the reader will find a wealth of biological information that serves as an introduction to the natural history of insects and related classes. Sidebars on insect behavior and ecological factors enhance the descriptive accounts. Kenji Nishida's stunning photographs-many of which show insects in action in their natural settings-add appeal to every page. A final chapter provides a glimpse into the intriguing world of spiders, scorpions, crabs, and other arthropods.

The purpose of this book is twofold: on one hand, it gives a mathematical perspective of Daphnia which comprises studies focusing on introducing size-structured population dynamics models of Daphnia and their unification, as well as developing and analyzing mathematical models of size-structured population dynamics of several species of Daphnia. These include proving the well-posedness of the model and related regularity properties, determining the steady states and proving the principle of linearised stability and studying the (in)stability of the steady states. The mathematical perspective of Daphnia is written at a research level and it is intended for researchers in applied mathematics, differential equations, biomathematics, mathematical biology, mathematical ecology as well as graduate students in the above mentioned fields of research. The necessary background for reading the chapters is the knowledge of ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, integral equations and functional analysis. On the other hand, this book also provides a biological perspective of Daphnia by focusing on topics such as: the swimming behaviour, inducible defense mechanisms in order to avoid predation, sexual reproduction, the use of Daphnia as a classroom organism and the role of Daphnia in ecotoxicological evaluations of contaminants. In addition, it contains several video movies attached to some chapters. The biological perspective of Daphnia is written at a research level and intended for researchers in biology, chemistry, ecology and environment as well as graduate students in the above-mentioned fields of research.

Krill, or euphausiids, a group of immense importance in marine ecosystems, comprises over 80 species, most of which are planktonic. Krill are widespread with species to be found in all the oceans of the world. Their numerical density in some regions increases their importance to marine ecosystems and has led to commercially successful krill harvesting.

This comprehensive volume, thoroughly edited by Inigo Everson, well known for his work in this area, comprises chapters written by internationally acknowledged experts. The contents include coverage of: sampling and distribution, population, aggregation, reproduction and the role of krill in the ecosystem. Further specific chapters include krill harvesting, products and details of management in Japanese, Canadian and Southern Ocean waters. Drawing on the experience in each, the ecosystem approach to management is discussed in detail and how it might be applied more widely for example in forage fisheries.

This most important volume draws together, for the first time, a vast amount of vital information for all those involved in work on these important marine organisms. Krill will be of great use to fisheries scientists, marine biologists and ecologists, oceanographers, zoologists and invertebrate biologists and all those involved in the commercial harvesting, exploitation and management of krill, world wide. Libraries in all aquatic and marine research stations and universities where marine and fisheries sciences are studied and taught should have multiple copies of this landmark publication on their shelves.
Contributions from internationally-recognised experts in the field.
Well-edited to provide an accessible and user-friendly book.
Krill are a key part of ocean ecosystems.
Part of exciting new Blackwell Science Series.

The Zoological Guide to Crustacea opens by providing an update on the cave crustacean decapods from Mexico, because in the last thirty years several species have been described. Mexico has diverse cave environments according to cave origin, such as: karstic caves, volcano caves with freshwater habitats and anchialine caves with marine and brackish habitats. The following study focuses on a total of 2,700 Artemia franciscana collected at the Al Wathba Reserve between December 2017 and May 2018, which were examined for the presence of larval helminths by direct microscopy of glycerin mounted specimens. Of these, 341 (= 12.6%) specimens contained different species of the Hymenopepididae and Progynotaeniidae families. The penultimate study investigates whether the non-marine ostracod Heterocypris incongruens can detect and react to chemical compounds derived from a predator and from injured conspecifics. The closing study demonstrates the diversity of larval phases and their importance to lobster populations and fisheries, and provides a summary of larval developmental patterns and behaviors and their potential impacts on larval dispersal and lobster demographic connectivity.