With this edition, the texts of the famous Traite de Zoologie have now beome available to a worldwide readership. Parts 1, 2, and 3A of volume VII, i.e., the Crustacea, were published in French in, respectively, 1994, 1996, and 1999. As the current standard works on Crustacea in English date back from the 1960s through to the 1980s, it seems obvious that the Crustacea published in this Treatise on Zoology will take over as a standard reference to the biology and systematics of the group for the next decades.
The English edition is planned to comprise at least 8 volumes of approx. 400 pp. each, based on the French parts hitherto published.

About this volume
This first volume in the Treatise on Zoology contains chapters on:
- The Crustacea: definition, primitive forms, and classification
- Segmentation, tagmata, and appendages
- The integument: morphology and biochemistry
- Chromatophores and pigmentation
- Moulting, autotomy, and regeneration
- Eyes and vision
- The non-visual sense organs
- Luminous organs and luminescence

All chapters have been carefully reviewed, either by the original authors or by specialists selected and invited by the editors, and updated accordingly. Taxonomic and subject indeces are supplied, as is a list of contributors.