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Issue: Vol. 1260 No. 1: 14 Jul. 2006
Type: Articles
Published: 2006-07-14
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1260.1.5
Page range: 57–66
Abstract views: 62
PDF downloaded: 6

A new species of Ptychognathus Stimpson, 1858 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Varunidae) from the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan

Department of Chemistry, Biology and Marine Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara-cho, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119260, Republic of Singapore
Crustacea Brachyura Varunidae Ptychognathus new species Ryukyu Islands Japan

Abstract

A new varunid crab, Ptychognathus insolitus, is described from Izena Island, the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan. This new species is unique among congeners in having a very broad carapace, long and slender ambulatory legs, and stout male first gonopods. Although these characters are diagnostic to Orcovita Ng & Tomascik, 1994, the new species belongs to Ptychognathus Stimpson, 1858 based on the lack of a distinct frontal median triangle on the carapace and the short dactyli of the fifth pereopods.

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