||De*cap"o*da (d&esl;*kăp"&osl;*d&adot;), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. de`ka ten + poy`s, podo`s, foot.] 1. (Zoöl.) The order of Crustacea which includes the shrimps, lobsters, crabs, etc.

&fist; They have a carapace, covering and uniting the somites of the head and thorax and inclosing a gill chamber on each side, and usually have five (rarely six) pairs of legs. They are divided into two principal groups: Brachyura and Macrura. Some writers recognize a third (Anomura) intermediate between the others.

2. (Zoöl.) A division of the dibranchiate cephalopods including the cuttlefishes and squids. See Decacera.

Translingual
• a taxonomic order, within superorder Eucarida - the decapod crustacea