Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853 )

Parasram, Nadeshinie, Santana, William & Vallès, Henri, 2023, Checklist of the shallow-water marine Brachyura (Crustacea: Decapoda) of Barbados, West Indies, Zootaxa 5314 (1), pp. 1-62 : 45-46

Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853)

( Fig. 20C )

Acanthopus gibbesi H. Milne Edwards, 1853: 180 [type-locality: “Antilles”; type probably in MNHN].

Percnon gibbesi . — Rathbun 1918: 337; 1920: 25; 1921: 78; 1924: 18; 1933: 93; 1936: 387; Williams 1965: 224; Powers 1977: 131; Rodríguez 1980: 339; Williams 1984: 462, fig. 371; Keith 1985: 271, fig. 10F; Abele & Kim 1986: 63; Scelzo & Varela 1988: 37; Melo 1996: 457, unnumbered fig.; Carré 2005: 23; Questel 2014: 13; González-Gómez et al. 2018: 11, tab. 1; Poupin 2018: 226, fig. 258; Tavares & Mendonça 2022: 100.

Distribution. Western and Eastern Atlantic and Eastern Pacific. Western Atlantic: USA (North Carolina, Florida), Bermuda, Bahamas, St. Croix, St. Martin, St. Barthélemy, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, Isla de Aves, Martinique, Barbados, Isla de Blanquilla, Isla de Margarita, Isla de Cubagua, Los Roques, Tortuga, Bonaire, Curaçao, and Brazil; Eastern Atlantic: Azores to Cape of Good Hope. Eastern Pacific: Baja California to Chile ( Keith 1985; Poupin 2018).

Material examined. Barbados, Drill Hall , St. Michael, subtidal, 13°04’36.30”N, 59°36’26.63”W, 1 ♀, 1 Ô CW: 12.1, 20.7 mm ( BLSZ 117 ) . Idem , 1 Ô CW: 11.1 mm ( BLSZ 143 ) . Idem , 3 Ô CW: 5.7, 6.9, 12.0 mm ( BLSZ 150 ) . Coconut Court , Christ Church, nearshore rubble, 13°04’31.59”N, 59°36’13.78”W, 1 Ô (juv.), 1 ♀ (juv.) CW: 15.1, 17.6 mm ( BLSZ 127 ) .

Remarks. Specimens of Percnon gibbesi were collected by hand in nearshore rubble habitat, under rubble rock, and caught in crab traps placed on sandy bottom (~ 4m deep) on the west coast of Barbados. Ovigerous females were collected in August 2020 and June 2021 in nearshore rubble habitats. Rathbun (1921: 78) reported one juvenile male specimen (USNM 74500) of Percnon gibbesi collected by the Barbados-Antigua Expedition in 1918. Percnon gibbesi can often be seen hiding behind Diadema antillarum (Philippi, 1845) in subtidal habitats. This species is a target of the aquarium trade ( Calado 2006) and is highly invasive to its introduced localities ( Deudero et al. 2005; Katsanevakis et al. 2010; Tiralongo et al. 2021).

Figures

FIGURE 20. Superfamily Grapsoidea MacLeay, 1838, dorsal habitus: A, Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758), female (juv.), cw 26.6 mm (BLSZ 231); B, Pachygrapsus transversus (Gibbes, 1850), male, cw 10.2 mm (BLSZ 209); C, Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853), male, 20.8 mm (BLSZ 117); D, Plagusia depressa (Fabricius, 1775), female, cw 10.6 mm (MZUSP 40922). Scale bars = 20 mm.