Crustacea, Hamburg

Scope of the collection

The collection currently comprises more than 850,000 individuals of around 7,200 species from all over the world. More than 6,300 individuals of 1,700 species have been deposited in the collection as type material for species descriptions. This makes it one of the largest and most important collections of crustaceans in Germany.
Around 90 per cent of the species in the collection come from marine habitats, primarily from the Southern Ocean. The remaining 10 per cent are from freshwater and terrestrial habitats, as well as fossil material.

Diversity of crustaceans

The collection houses around 2,100 crustacean genera representing more than 350 families. The Malacostraca (higher crustaceans) are particularly well represented, especially the amphipods (Amphipoda, around 250,000 individuals) and the isopods (Isopoda, around 170,000 individuals). The decapod crustaceans (Decapoda) are present with around 30,000 individuals. Other focal points are copepods (Copepoda, around 260,000 individuals) and ostracods (Ostracoda, around 25,000 individuals).