Male crustaceans must find and identify receptive females to mate successfully. Mate recognition depends mainly on sex pheromones, which are detected by antennae and antennules. Distance (soluble)pheromone mediates mating behaviour of some decapod crustaceans. Contact pheromone (an insoluble coating on the body surface) has been proposed but not confirmed to be used by male decapod crustaceans to detect females. Here we report for the first time the involvement of both distance and contact pheromones in the mating processes of Lysmata shrimp (a group of protandric simultaneous hermaphrodites), and we have partially identified the soluble and contact pheromones. Additionally, evolution of the sex pheromone system of Lysmata shrimp, and role of the sex pheromones in reproductive isolation of Lysmata shrimp were investigated.