noun
definition
Any of very many crustaceans of the class Malacostraca
Examples of malacostracan in a Sentence
The second antennae, mandibles and two pairs of maxillae may also be claimed as of malacostracan type.
To these succeed eight pairs of foliaceous branchial appendages on the front division of the body, followed on the hind division by four pairs of powerful bifurcate swimming feet and two rudimentary pairs, the number, though not the nature, of these appendages being malacostracan.
All these marks may fail, and then the species must be proved to be Malacostracan by other evidence than the number of its segments; but if some exceptions exhibit fewer, none of the Malacostraca exhibits more than 19 (+ 1 or + 2) segments, unless the Nebaliidae be included.
In this genus alone of the known Sympoda the eyes sometimes form a pair, in accordance with the custom of all other malacostracan orders except this and of this order itself in the embryo (Sars, 1900).
At the same time, the tendency to a retardation in the development of the posterior thoracic somites is very general in Malacostracan larvae, and may perhaps be correlated with the f