Luciferidae is a family of prawns. These prawns are small, characterised by bioluminescence and the loss or reduction of some appendages. They are predators of tiny planktonic crustaceans for which their third pereiopod is adapted to capture by having thick, curved spines covering the limb. Until recently, the family was thought to be monotypic, but a 2016 cladistic analysis recognized a second genus apart from Lucifer, named Belzebub.[1][2]

Luciferidae
Belzebub hanseni
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Dendrobranchiata
Superfamily: Sergestoidea
Family: Luciferidae
De Haan, 1849
Genera

See text

References

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  1. ^ Sammy De Grave; N. Dean Pentcheff; Shane T. Ahyong; et al. (2009). "A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 21: 1–109. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
  2. ^ Alexander L. Vereshchaka; Jørgen Olesen; Anastasia A. Lunina (2016). "A phylogeny-based revision of the family Luciferidae (Crustacea: Decapoda)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 178: 15–32. doi:10.1111/zoj.12398.