Bouvier, 1917
Body dorsoventrally depressed. Integument very hard. Thoracic sternum wide and distinct. Abdomen extended and well-developed. Abdominal pleura well-developed except for pleuron I which is small and strongly reduced. All pereiopods well-developed and with anterior three pairs chelate (few only subchelate in pereiopods II and III) or all three non-chelate. Last pereiopod not widely separated from the other pereiopods nor directed backwards. Pleopods usually less developed than those of the other members of Macrura. Pleopods carrying fertilized eggs at the abdomen until hatching.
The suborder Macrura Reptantia consists of three infraorders:
Astacidea (marine lobsters and freshwater crayfishes), Palinuridea (spiny lobsters and slipper lobsters) and Thalassinidea (mud lobsters). The infraorder Astacidea contains three superfamilies of which only one (the Nephropoidea) is considered here. The remaining two superfamilies (Astacoidea and Parastacoidea) contain the freshwater crayfishes. The superfamily Nephropoidea (40 species) consists almost entirely of commercial or potentially commercial species, and their few non-commercial representatives are dealt. with here also, so as to give a complete picture of this group.
The infraorder Palinuridea, also contains three superfamilies (Eryonoidea, Glypheoidea and Palinuroidea) all of which are marine The Eryonoidea are deepwater species of insignificant commercial interest and are only treated superficially in this catalogue. The Glypheoidea, an almost exclusively fossil group, contains a single recent species, which is treated here. All species of the superfamily Palinuroidea (total about 120 species) are included in the catalogue. Members of the genus Scyllarus (over 40 species) are listed but only 7 species are treated in detail because they are the only ones known to be of (potential) interest to fisheries.
The third infraorder, the Thalassinidea, contains a single superfamily, the Thalassinoidea which contains around 100 species. Only a few representatives of this superfamily are known to be used as food and bait and hence only these few species are treated in detail in this catalogue.