Catalogue of Crustaceans

The crustaceans are not, strictly speaking, shell-fish, although often so described. They are members of the animal phylum Arthropoda, which also includes the spiders, scorpions and insects. Like these other creatures they are covered with hard, horny carapaces which are jointed for movement and sloughed from time to time as their owners grow. Many have a characteristic change of colour when cooked, for example the blue-black lobster which turns scarlet and the semi-transparent shrimp which turns pink and white.