AWAKE

Click here to view the list of Crustaceans present in Kentucky

Characteristics :

• Have jointed legs
• Have three or more pairs of mouthparts, including hard mandibles that hold, cut, and crush food
• Have two pair of antennae, or feelers, on head that function as sense organs
• Have eyes with many lenses and are called compound eyes
• Body has three main sections: head, thorax or trunk, and abdomen; in some, such as the crayfish, the head and thorax are fused into a cephalothorax
• Have a brittle, external skeleton called an exoskeleton that completely covers the body and is shed periodically, even during the adult stage
• Heart pumps circulating fluid through an open circulatory system, meaning that the fluid is not always contained within tubes

Taxanomy:

Classification of the crustaceans is undergoing some restructuring. Listed below is a possible system of classification for these organisms.

• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Crustacea
    • Class: Branchiopoda (fairy shrimp, water fleas, others)
      
      Cephalocardia
      
      Malacostraca
      • Order:Amphipoda (scuds)
        
        Copepoda (water fleas)
        
        Decapoda (crayfish, shrimp)
        
        Isopoda (pill bugs, sow bugs)
    • Maxillopoda (ostracods, copepods, barnacles)