In this work, the composition of the family Upogebidae is reassessed and the classification of its included taxa is critically reviewed. The material examined mainly originates from the collections of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main and the Zoological Museum of the university of Copenhagen, comprising samples from the Galathea Expedition 1950-1952, Dr. Th. Mortensen's expeditions, including the Java South African Expedition 1929-1930, and Dr. G. Thorson's Persian expedition. In all, two subfamilies, 11 genera and 157 species are represented in this revision.
The contents of the book are not only of interest for systematists but also for ecologists and environmental biologists focusing on neritic and benthic biocoenoses, as those mud shrimps are important agents in bioturbation proceses of the sea flora.
Katsushi Sakai, Ph.D. (1965) in Zoology, University of Kyusyu, is Professor of Shikoku University at Tokushima, Japan. He has published extensively on the classification of Thalassinids, and compiled the Crabs of Japan from the ETI, the world Biodiversity Database (2004).