Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2020-12-04
Page range: 589–598
Abstract views: 132
PDF downloaded: 66

A new species of the hermit crab genus Cancellus H. Milne Edwards, 1836 from a mesophotic deep bank in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (Crustacea: Decapoda: Diogenidae)

Department of Biology and Laboratory for Crustacean Research, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, P.O. Box 42451, Lafayette, Louisiana 70504-2451, USA.
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746, USA.
Crustacea new species Anomura Cancellus mesophotic Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Recent sampling on mesophotic deep banks in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico has produced a previously undescribed hermit crab assignable to the genus Cancellus H. Milne Edwards, 1836. Members of the genus are most often found to occupy cavities of eroded coral, siliceous sponges, porous calcareous rock fragments, algal concretions, or worm tubes as shelters. The present specimen was found loose as by-catch in a dredged rhodolith sample taken for algal life history studies. In situ, it likely occupied a cavity within one of the collected calcareous rhodoliths or small sponges in the by-catch. While our description is based on a single female specimen, the holotype is fully mature and intact, and it was solidly frozen in seawater until its coloration could be photographically documented and tissues extracted for sequencing. In comparison to the three other known western Atlantic species, the frontal rim of the carapace shield in the new species is continuous between the blunt lateral teeth as in C. ornatus Benedict, 1901 and C. viridis Mayo, 1873, and thus distinct from the subdivided front found in C. spongicola Benedict, 1901. The rim itself is somewhat flattened as in C. ornatus rather than inflated as in C. viridis. However, each of the ocular scales bears a pair of spines at the tip, as in C. viridis. The lower palms of the chelipeds, while distinctly rugose, do not have a separated patch of stridulating ridges comparable to those reported for C. spongicola. The yellow-orange to deep-orange pigmentation of the color pattern differs from fresh coloration in both C. ornatus and C. viridis, but that of C. spongicola is unknown for other than preserved specimens. Description of the single available specimen is in this case justified by the low likelihood for timely acquiring of additional samples from the type locality or adjacent habitats, most of which are deep banks warranting protection under pending habitat management changes. Our diagnosis includes GenBank accession numbers for COI sequences to facilitate future molecular phylogenetic comparisons.

 

References

  1. Benedict, J.E. (1901) Four new symmetrical hermit crabs (pagurids) from the West India region. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 23, 771–776, figs. 1–7.

    https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00963801.23-1236.771

    Bracken-Grissom, H.D. & Felder, D.L. (2014a) Revision of American snapping shrimps allied to Alpheus floridanus Kingsley, 1878 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae). Zootaxa, 3895 (4), 451–491.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3895.4.1

    Bracken-Grissom, H.D. & Felder, D.L. (2014b) Molecular phylogenetics of snapping shrimps allied to Alpheus floridanus Kingsley, 1878 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae). Zootaxa, 3895 (4), 492–502.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3895.4.2

    Felder, D.L. 2020. A new crab of the genus Nanoplax from the Gulf of Mexico, and reassignment of a former Micropanope (Crustacea, Brachyura, Pseudorhombilidae). Zootaxa, 4810 (3), 531–545.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4810.3.9

    Felder, D.L., Álvarez, F., Goy, J.W. & Lemaitre, R. (2009) Chapter 59: Decapoda (Crustacea) of the Gulf of Mexico, with comments on the Amphionidacea. In: Felder, D.L. & Camp, D.K. (Eds.), Gulf of Mexico origin, waters, and biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, pp. 1019–1104.

    Felder, D.L., Lemaitre, R. & Craig, C. (2019) Two new species of the Phimochirus holthuisi complex from the Gulf of Mexico, supported by morphology, color, and genetics (Crustacea: Anomura: Paguridae). Zootaxa, 4683 (4), 531–551.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4810.3.9

    Felder, D.L. & Thoma, B.P. (2010) Description of Etisus guinotae, new species, and

    discussion of its abrupt appearance in the Gulf of Mexico. In: Castro, P., Davie, P., Ng, P. & Richer de Forges, B. (Eds.), Brachyura: A homage to Danièle Guinot. Crustaceana Monographs, 11, pp. 117–138.

    Felder, D.L., Thoma, B.P., Schmidt, W., Sauvage, T., Self-Krayesky, S, Chistoserdov, A., Bracken-Grissom, H. & Fredericq, S. (2014) Monitored seaweeds and decapod crustaceans on northwestern Gulf deep banks following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Bioscience, 64 (9), 808–819.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4683.4.4

    Forest, J. & McLaughlin, P.A. (1998) Descriptions of two new Japanese hermit crabs (Decapoda: Paguridae: Diogenidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 111 (1), 188–198.

    Forest, J. & McLaughlin, P.A. (2000) Superfamily Coenobitoidea. In: Forest, J., de Saint Laurent, M., McLaughlin, P.A. & Lemaitre, R. (Eds.), The marine fauna of New Zealand: Paguridea (Decapoda: Anomura) exclusive of the Lithodidae. NIWA Biodiversity Memoir, 114, 31–103.

    Fredericq, S., Krayesky-Self, S., Sauvage, T., Richards, J., Kittle, R., Arakaki, N., Hickerson, E. & Schmidt, W.E. (2019) The critical Importance of rhodoliths in the life cycle completion of both macro- and microalgae, and as holobionts for the establishment and maintenance of marine biodiversity. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5 (502), 1–17.

    https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00502

    Martínez-Campos, B., Campos, N.H. & Lemaitre, R. (2017) Catálogo de los cangrejos ermitaños del Caribe colombiano/Catalog of hermit crabs from Colombian Caribbean. INVEMAR, special publication, 440 pp.

    Mayo, B.S. (1973) A review of the genus Cancellus (Crustacea: Diogenidae) with the description of a new species from the Caribbean Sea. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 150, 1–63.

    https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00810282.150

    McLaughlin, P.A. (2003) Illustrated keys to families and genera of the superfamily Paguroidea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura), with diagnosis of genera of Paguridae. Memoirs of Museum Victoria, 60 (1), 111–144.

    https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.2003.60.16

    McLaughlin, P.A. (2008) A new species of the hermit crab genus Cancellus (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguroidea: Diogenidae) from the PANGLAO Expeditions to the Philippine Islands. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 19, 73–80.

    McLaughlin, P.A., Komai, T., Lemaitre, R. & Rahayu, D.L. (2010) Annotated checklist of anomuran decapod crustaceans of the world (exclusive of the Kiwaoidea and families Chirostylidae and Galatheidae of the Galatheoidea). Part 1, Lithodoidea, Lomisoidea and Paguroidea. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 23, 5–107.

    Milne Edwards, H. (1836) Observations zoologiques sur les Pagures et description d’un nouveau genre de la tribu des Paguriens. Annales des Sciences Naturelle Zoologie, Paris (2)6, 257–288.

    Thoma, B.P. & Felder, D.L. (2020) A new genus and species of xanthoid crab (Decapoda: Brachyura) from offshore hard bank habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. Zootaxa, 4731 (3), 403–413.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4731.3.8

    Schram, F.R. & Koenemann, S. (2004) Developmental genetics and arthropod evolution: On body regions of Crustacea. In: Scholtz, G. (Ed.), Evolutionary developmental biology of Crustacea. Crustacean Issues. Vol. 15. Balkema, Lisse, pp. 75–92.

    Wong, J., Perez-Moreno, J., Chan, T.Y., Frank, T. & Bracken-Grissom, D. (2015) Phylogenetic and transcriptomic analyses reveal the evolution of bioluminescence and light detection in marine deep-sea shrimps of the family Oplophoridae (Crustacea: Decapoda). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 83, 278–292.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.11.013