Lucifer (prawn)

Taxobox
name = "Lucifer"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
ordo = Decapoda
subordo = Dendrobranchiata
superfamilia = Sergestoidea
familia = Luciferidae
familia_authority = De Haan, 1849
genus = "Lucifer"
genus_authority = Thompson, 1829
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "Lucifer chacei" "Lucifer faxoni" "Lucifer hanseni" "Lucifer intermedius" "Lucifer orientalis" "Lucifer penicillifer" "Lucifer reynandii" "Lucifer typus"

"Lucifer" is a little-known and degenerate genus of prawns, the only genus in the family Luciferidae. "Lucifer" has a long body, but many fewer appendages than other prawns, with only three pairs of pereiopods remaining, all without claws. It also bears no gills. The females, uniquely among prawns, carry the fertilised eggs on her pleopods until they are ready to hatch. This parallels the development of a similar system in pleocyemates, although the attachment is less strong in "Lucifer". The length of the eye-stalks and the form of the petasma are used in distinguishing the eight species from each other.