Abstract: Crustacean toxicity data required for deriving water quality criteria (WQC). In this study, planktonic and benthic crustaceans were investigated to select the test crustacean species for development of WQC. Firstly, the representative native crustacean species were selected according to their characteristics such as distribution area and ecological significance. After the representative native crustacean species selected, their species toxicity data were collected from the ECOTOX database and other published literatures. Thereafter, the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) of planktonic and benthic crustaceans was applied to compare their sensitivities species. The results indicated that Daphnia (D. magna, D. pulex, D. cucullata and D. hyaline), Simocephalus (S. serrulatus) and Ceriodaphnia (C. dubia) from Daphniidaecould be the recommended test planktons, while Gammarus (G. pulex and G. lacustris) from Gammaridae, Macrobrachium (M. nipponnensic) from Palaemonidae and Eriocheir (E. sinensis) from Grapsidae could be recommended as the test benthos for derivation of WQC. In addition, the sensitivity ranks of crustacean species were different when they exposed to various pollutants. Therefore, D. magna, D. pulex, D. cucullata, D. hyaline, S. serrulatus, G. pulex and M. nipponnensic that ranked No.1could be the recommended test crustaceans in deriving WQC for heavy metals. When deriving WQCs for organic pollutants and nutrients of ammonia, D. pulex, C. dubia, G. pulex, G. lacustris and E. sinensis that ranked No.1could be the recommended test crustaceans.