This volume is in honour of Danièle Guinot (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France), and was born out of our admiration for Danièle's immense contributions to her discipline. She has helped reawaken interest on the systematics of brachyuran decapods crustaceans, the true crabs. Furthermore, she has significantly helped to redefine the study of the complete evolutionary process in crabs. A total of 35 of her colleagues have contributed to this volume, submitting papers on those aspects of the Brachyura to which Danièle, herself, has significantly contributed - taxonomy, evolution, morphology, palaeontology and general biology of crabs. This volume is but a small tribute to a highly respected colleague and friend from the active band of researchers that she has helped so much over the years.