Class Malacostraca
Class Malacostraca
Class Information:
The Class Malacostraca is the largest class of the Arthropod subphylum, Crustacea.
- Some of their distinctive characteristics include the following.
- three-part body: head, thorax and abdomen made up of many segments.
- compound stalked or sessile eyes.
- a two-chambered stomach.
- centralized nervous system
- usually eight legs, with the first pair sometimes as pincers
- hanging from the abdomen are appendages are called pleopods, or swimmerets. They are primarily swimming legs, and are also used for brooding the eggs, catching food (then swept to the mouth), and in isopods, are used as gills.
Class Common Name:
Crayfish and Relatives
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Malacostraca | Eucarya > Animalia > Arthropoda > |
Orders of Class Malacostraca
| Order | Common Name | Photo Example | Where? |
| Amphipoda | amphipods | (NA) | Here |
| Decapoda | crayfish, crabs and shrimp |  |
Here |
| Isopoda | pillbugs and sowbugs | (NA) | Here |
