NOMEN: Malacostracia Pearce 1936: 14 [Pearse A.S. Zoological names. A list of phyla, classes, and orders. / Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Press, 1936: 1–24] BHL
ORIGINAL LISTED MEMBERSHIP (Pearce 1936): Leptostraca + Eumalacostraca
SENIOR CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYM:
= Branchipodiformes Grobben 1893
TYPIFIED NAME IN BASIC FORMAT: Cancer/fg (sine Hutchinsoniella, Speleonectes, Branchipus, Lernaea, Cypris; incl. Nebalia)
TYPIFIED NAMES IN USE:
MODERN
STATUS: 
the valid, the
oldest name of a generally accepted, holophyletic taxon.
COMMENT. The name Malacostraca is generally accepted for this taxon. The word "malacostraca" means "soft-shelled" (that is connected with presence of a large carapace in Decapoda and some other representatives of this taxons) and was taken from the works by Aristotle, where all animals recently attributed to arthropods were placed to two large taxa – Malacostraca è Entoma. The formal authorship of the name Malacostraca belongs to Latreille (1802); however in the book by Latreille the legio Malacostraca in the class Crustacea included only Decapoda, Stomatopoda (under the name Squillares) and Amphipoda (under the name Gammarinae); at the same time eucrustaceans recently attributed to Isopoda within Malacostracia, were united in a legio Tetracera in the class Insecta. Thus, the name Malacostraca Latreille 1802 in its original circumscription does not fit to the taxon discussed here. The name Branchipodiformes Grobben 1893 never was used as valid and was suggested only in connection with the theory about origin of Malacostracia from a Branchipus-like ancestor; it can be confused with a typified name of some taxon which includes Branchipus. In connection with the theory about polyphyletic origin of arthropods, this taxon got a quite doubtwul name "higher crabs".