Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1807 No. 1: 23 Jun. 2008
Type: Article
Published: 2008-06-23
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1807.1.4
Page range: 63–68
Abstract views: 50
PDF downloaded: 1

A new species of the sentinel crab Macrophthalmus (Mareotis) Barnes, 1967 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Macrophthalmidae) from Western Australia

Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, U.K
Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300, South Brisbane, Qld 4101, Australia
Crustacea Macrophthalmus pistrosinus new species Brachyura Macrophthalmidae taxonomy Australia

Abstract

Specimens previously identified as Macrophthalmus japonicus from Shark Bay, Western Australia, are described as a new species, M. pistrosinus. The new species differs both in behaviour and morphology from its closest relatives, particularly in characters such as proportions of male abdomens, setation patterns of claws, carapace dentition and leg morphology.

References

  1. Barnes, R.S.K. (1967) The Macrophthalminae of Australasia; with a review of the evolution and morphological diversity of the type genus Macrophthalmus (Crustacea: Brachyura). Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 31, 195–262.

    Barnes, R.S.K. (1970) The species of Macrophthalmus (Crustacea: Brachyura) in the collections of the British Museum (Natural History). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology, 20, 205–251.

    Kim, H.S. (1973) Anomura & Brachyura. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fauna and Flora of Korea, 14, 1–694.

    Kitaura, J., Nishida, M. & Wada, K. (2002) Genetic and behavioural diversity in the Macrophthalmus japonicus species complex (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae). Marine Biology, Berlin, 140, 1–8.

    Kitaura, J, Nishida, M. & Wada, K. (2006) The evolution of social behaviour in sentinel crabs (Macrophthalmus): implications from molecular phylogeny. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 88, 45–59.

    Shen, C.J. (1932) The brachyuran Crustacea of North China. Zoologia Sinica (Series A. Invertebrates of China), 9, 1–321.

    Tai, A-Y & Song, Y-Z. (1984) Macrophthalmus (Decapoda, Brachyura) of the seas of China. Crustaceana, 46, 76–86.

    Wada, K. (1978) Two forms of Macrophthalmus japonicus de Haan (Crustacea: Brachyura). Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, 24, 327–340.

    Wada, K. & Sakai, K. (1989) A new species of Macrophthalmus closely related to M. japonicus (de Haan) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ocypodidae). Senckenbergiana Maritima, 20, 131–146.