Whilst the role of chemoreception in juvenile crustacean feeding behaviour has received considerable attention, the chemosensory responses of larval planktonic crustacean stages have been neglected. The present study investigated the acceptability of processed, microparticulate and microencapsulated diets and the possible role of chemoattractants for larval and juvenile stages of Homarus gammarus (Linnaeus) and juvenile stages of Palaemon elegans (Rathke). Larval and juvenile lobster were obtained from MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Conwy, UK), and juvenile P. elegans were collected from the Menai Straits (Gwynedd, UK) during the summer months of 1985/1986. During the larval stages, food capture results from chance encounter, and the role of low molecular-weight chemoattractants appears to be in the determination of the edible from the inedible. Dietary conditioning behaviour in decapod larvae, which has until now not been investigated, enables the larvae to discriminate more rapidly between particles of different digestibilities. The digestibility and assimilation efficiency displayed on artificial diets in the present study suggest that lobster larvae possess limited enzymatic capabilities, although later stages are more efficient and display longer food-retention time. Growth (0.114 mm d -1) and survival (80.0%) of lobster larvae fed natural diets were significantly better (F=14.8; P=0.001, and F = 54.0, P=0.001, respectively) than of individuals fed artificial diets. Although pre-digested artificial diets (ingredients pre-treated with pancreatin) resulted in higher survival (74 and 63%) compared to microencapsulated diets (37%), there was no significant growth difference between the artificial diets tested. (Homarus gammarus) larvae, and investigates the possible role for amino acids as chemoattractants. Growth, survival, diet digestibility, assimilation efficiency, dietary conditioning behaviour and gut-evacuation time (GET) of larval lobsters on natural or artificial diets are also determined and their significance discussed.