Shrimp and prawn

Question

Hi,Are shrimp and prawn referring to the same insect to you?Is it just a matter of different areas using different names (btw, there is an expression; it just slips my mind)? Thanks.

Exodejavu · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I think an insect has six legs no matter what places.
The marine life in question, I believe, has more than six legs.

BarbaraPA · Answer

They aren't insects, and here's one scientific defnition.

It may not match what you hear in a restaurant though, as this lively definition explains.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Wiki distinguishes these as different animals. Here are some quotes from Wiki:

Prawns are Decapods, belonging to the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. They are similar in appearance to shrimp, but can be distinguished by the gill structure which is branching in prawns (hence the name, dendro=“tree”; branchia=“gill”), but is lamellar in shrimp. The sister taxon to Dendrobranchiata is Pleocyemata, which contains all the true shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.

In various forms of English, the name “prawn” is often applied to shrimp as well, generally the larger species, such as Leander serratus. In the United States, according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, the word “prawn” usually indicates a freshwater shrimp or prawn.

Anonymous · Answer

Angliholic Hi,Are shrimp and prawn referring to the same insect to you?Is it just a matter of different areas using different names (btw, there is an expression; it just slips my mind)? Thanks.

You can see in these links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prawn and http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/prawn , that it is just a matter of different areas using different names. Shrimp is the word in the USA for what is known as prawns in the UK and the rest of the English-speaking world.

Shrimp and prawn

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