Лангусты-шлепанцы: Биология и промысел

Family of crustaceans
Automatic taxobox
| fossil range =
| name = Slipper lobsters
| image = Scyllarides latus. jpg
| image caption = Scyllarides latus
| taxon = Scyllaridae
| authority = Latreille, 1825
| subdivision ranks = Subfamilies  The largest species, Scyllarides haanii, may reach long.

Slipper lobsters are typically bottom dwellers of the continental shelves, found at depths of up to Slipper lobsters eat a variety of molluscs, including limpets, mussels and oysters, as well as crustaceans, polychaetes and echinoderms. They grow slowly and live to a considerable age. They lack the giant neurones which allow other decapod crustaceans to perform tailflips, and must rely on other means to escape predator attack, such as burial in a substrate and reliance on the heavily armoured exoskeleton. The most significant predators of slipper lobsters are bony fish, with the grey triggerfish being the most significant predator of Scyllarides latus in the Mediterranean Sea. These ten or so stages last the greater part of a year, after which the larva moults into a "nisto" stage that lasts a few weeks. Almost nothing is known about the transition from this stage to the adults, which continue to grow through a series of moults.

Although they are fished for wherever they are found, slipper lobsters have not been the subject of such intense fishery as spiny lobsters or true lobsters. The methods used for catching slipper lobsters varies depending on the species' ecology. Those that prefer soft substrates, such as Thenus and Ibacus, are often caught by trawling, while those that prefer crevices, caves and reefs (including Scyllarides, Arctides and Parribacus species) are usually caught by scuba divers. More recently, annual production has been around , the majority of which is production of Thenus orientalis in Asia.

A number of common names have been applied to the family Scyllaridae. The most common of these is "slipper lobster", and "locust lobster". "Spanish lobster" is used for members of the genus Arctides, "mitten lobster" for Parribacus, and "fan lobster" for Evibacus and Ibacus. In Australia, a number of species are called "bugs" (for example, the Balmain bug and Moreton Bay bug), especially those in the genus Ibacus. Other names used in Australia include "bay lobster", "blind lobster", "flapjack", "flat lobster", "flying saucer", "gulf lobster", "mudbug", "sandbug", "shovel nose bug", "shovelnose lobster", "crayfish", "slipper bug" and "squagga". Rarer terms include "flathead lobster" (for Thenus orientalis) and "bulldozer lobster". In Greece they may be known as Kolochtypes which roughly translates as 'bum hitter'. Twenty two genera are recognised, the majority of which were erected in 2002 by Lipke Holthuis for species formerly classified under Scyllarus:

The fossil record of slipper lobsters extends back 100–120 million years, which is considerably less than that of slipper lobsters' closest relatives, the spiny lobsters. One significant earlier fossil is Cancrinos claviger, which was described from Upper Jurassic sediments at least , and may represent either an ancestor of modern slipper lobsters, or the sister group to the family Scyllaridae sensu stricto.