Northern kōura, Paranephrops planifrons (Parastacidae)

Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some species are found in brooks and streams, where fresh water is running, while others thrive in swamps, ditches, and paddy fields. Most crayfish cannot tolerate polluted water, although some species, such as Procambarus clarkii, are hardier. Crayfish feed on animals and plants, either living or decomposing, and detritus.

The term "crayfish" is applied to saltwater species in some countries. (Full article...)

Dardanus pedunculatus (Decapoda: Diogenidae) with Calliactis sp. anemones

• ... that the shrimp Periclimenes dardanicola lives on sea anemones on the shell of the hermit crab Dardanus pedunculatus (pictured), in one of the few associations between two decapods?
• ... that Canada's Federated Co-operatives partnered with SeaChoice to promote sustainable seafood, like the spiny lobster, through its co-operatives?
• ... that sponge crabs of the species Dromia dormia carry sponges on their back as camouflage, and have even used the sole of a shoe for that purpose?
• ... that the fairy shrimp Branchinecta gaini is the largest freshwater invertebrate in Antarctica?

Michèle de Saint Laurent (December 9, 1926 – July 11, 2003) was a French carcinologist. She was born on December 9, 1926 at Fontainebleau, near Paris. She studied general biology at the University of Paris under Pierre-Paul Grassé, earning her Diplôme de Licence in 1954. She started undertaking scientific research even before finishing her degree, and the resulting paper brought her into contact with staff at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. From 1955 until 1960, she worked at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), at their laboratory at Banyuls-sur-Mer; thereafter, she returned to the Paris museum.

The first major focus of Michèle de Saint Laurent's work was the systematics of hermit crabs. She also investigated other decapod crustaceans, particularly the Thalassinidea. As a result of this work, she was invited in 1974 to visit the Smithsonian Institution and was given an unidentified specimen which had been caught by the Albatross expedition in 1908. She and Jacques Forest realised that it represented a living relative of the Glypheoidea, a group previously thought to have been extinct since the Eocene. They described the new genus together in 1975, as Neoglyphea. De Saint Laurent's later work included a new classification of crabs (involving the recognition of a new section, Eubrachyura), and three new superfamilies (Axioidea, Enoplometopoidea and Retroplumoidea), as well as various works on the decapods of hydrothermal vents.