Approximately 26.000 species of crustaceans are known all over the planet, most of them being marine crustaceans. In this huge group, the species that belong to the Decapod order are the ones with the highest number of species, about 8.500, which is equivalent to almost a third of all known crustacean species.

The first bibliographic references concerning the occurrence of decapods in the Madeira Archipelago, to our knowledge, are from 1823 when the English naturalist and traveller, E. T. Bowdich (1825), visited the island and noted a kind of red mottled rock crab - Pagurus maculatus (synonimous of Paguristes eremita).

Later on, Johnson (1867) described a new sort of shrimp caught in Madeira, naming it Funchalia in honour of our capital.

Today, there are 171 species of decapod crustaceans referenced to the Madeira Archipelago. In the collection of the Museu Municipal do Funchal (Natural History Museum) you may find 128 examples of these species.