Shrimp
| Shrimps | ||||||||||||
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 [[Pacific White Shrimp | ||||||||||||
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list may be incomplete Aristeidae Penaeidae Sergestidae Sicyoniidae Solenoceridae Nematocarcinidae Atydae Pasiphaeoidae Rhynocinetidae Campylonotidae Palaemonidae Alpheidae Ogyrididae Hippolytidae Proussidae Pandalidae Crangonidae |
True shrimps are small, swimming, decapod crustaceans usually classified in the suborder Natantia, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water.
| Table of contents |
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2 Shrimps as food 3 Shrimps in aquaria 4 Catching Shrimp |
Taxonomy
A number of more or less unrelated crustaceans also have the word "shrimp" in their common name. Examples are the mantis shrimps and the opposum or mysid shrimps, both of which belong to the same class (Malacostraca) as the true shrimps, but constitute two different orderss within it, the Stomatopoda and the Mysidacea.
Also, debates on the taxonomy of the decapods continues, and not all authorities recognise Natantia as a valid grouping, while some would place infraorders or superfamilies beneath it.
The most recent classifications tend to remove some of the shrimps, in particular the family Penaeidae, from Natantia. They then become classified within the suborder Dendrobranchiata and the infraorder Penaeoida (some authors treat Penaeoida as a suborder). The rest of the shrimps belong to a different suborder, the Pleocyemata; Natantia may serve as the name for an infraorder within this, though the name Caridea occurs more frequenly. In this scheme, the members of the Pleocyemate infraorder Caridea are regarded as the "true shrimps", while the members of the Dendrobranchiate infraorder Penaeoida are referred to as "penaeid shrimps". The table at the right reflects the older classification.
The points that seem relatively fixed amidst this fluidity are:
- All animals in the families listed at right would normally be named as shrimps, but they may not constitute a monophyletic group.
- All current classifications place all true shrimps in the order Decapoda, which groups them with crabs, lobsters and krill.
- There are some animals whose common name includes the word "shrimp" that definitely belong to other groups of crustaceans.
Shrimps as food
A number of the larger species, including the white shrimp Penaeus setiferus, are caught commercially and used for food. Various recipes utilizing shrimp form part of the cuisine of many cultures: see scampi, for instance.
Japanese marsh shrimp Caridina japonicaShrimps in aquaria
