Making the Australian crustaceans known – the decadal plan and the generational challenge.

Rachael A. King (South Australian Museum, Adelaide); Shane T. Ahyong (Australian Museum and University of NSW).

Crustaceans, sometimes dubbed the insects of the sea, are the most abundant and speciose aquatic arthropods. Notwithstanding that hexapods are now known to be derived from within Crustacea (and are therefore also crustaceans), we focus here on the non-hexapod crustaceans. Of these, the dominant groups recorded from Australia are Copepoda, Ostracoda (seed shrimps), Decapoda (crabs, lobsters, prawns), Isopoda (slaters and allies), Amphipoda (sand hoppers and allies), Tanaidacea and Cirripedia (barnacles), but numerous smaller groups are also present. Most are marine, although there are also significant radiations in freshwater and on land.  Here, we summarise what is known about the richness of the Australian crustacean fauna and explore the generational challenge of describing the remaining fauna in the context of high levels of undiscovered diversity and a shrinking taxonomic workforce.