Annotated Checklist of the World’s Marine Lobsters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Astacidea, Glypheidea, Achelata, Polychelida)

Abstract

Marine lobsters are defined as consisting of four infraorders of decapod crustaceans: Astacidea, Glypheidea, Achelata and Polychelida. Together they form the suborder Macrura Reptantia. A checklist of the currently recognized six families, 55 genera and 248 species (with four subspecies) of living marine lobsters is provided, together with their synonyms in recent literature and information on the type locality of the valid taxa. Notes on alternative taxonomies and justifications for the choice of taxonomy are given. Although Caroli Linnaeus himself described the first marine lobster in 1758, the discovery rate of marine lobsters remains high to this day.