Oplophoridae Dana, 1852

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 41

Family Oplophoridae Dana, 1852

Most oplophorids are pelagic, often with a thin carapace and bright orange to red color. The toothed rostrum varies from short to long. The carapace may bear teeth and carinae. Some species also have teeth on the dorsal midline of the abdominal somites. Eyes may be pigmented or not. Pereopods 1, 2 are chelate and shorter than pereopods 3–5. The maxillipeds and pereopods bear exopods.

Little is known about most oplophorids of the area of coverage. Systellaspis debilis ( Milne-Edwards, 1881) produces a luminous cloud. Other species have photophores (light-producing cells). Traps being brought up to the surface have captured oplophorids, suggesting that they were scavenging on the bait. Species of Notostomus and Systellaspis may feed on pelagic cnidarians such as jellyfishes of the genus Atolla ( Moore et al. 1993) .

Many oplophorid species are thought to be nearly cosmopolitan or at least in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The key given here is based on the work by Chace (1986), which provides additional descriptive information, especially of Indo-West Pacific species.

Ebeling et al. (1969: 12) reported Notostomus elegans A. Milne-Edwards, 1881 (as N. patentissimus Bate, 1888 ) from the San Pedro Basin, California, but this is believed to be an Indo-West Pacific species ( Crosnier & Forest 1973).