Calocarcinus africanus Calman, 1909

Ahyong, Shane T., 2009, First records of Thryaplax Castro, 2007 and Calocarcinus Calman, 1909 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) from the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand, Zootaxa 1982, pp. 66-68 : 66-68

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.185338
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6221810
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03CD87DD-4373-FFF0-FF34-F91CFC00FF2A
treatment provided by	Plazi (2016-04-06 22:32:44, last updated 2024-11-28 18:06:12)
scientific name	Calocarcinus africanus Calman, 1909
status

Treatment

Calocarcinus africanus Calman, 1909 View in CoL

( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1. A – C D)

Calocarcinus africanus Calman, 1909: 31 View in CoL , unnumbered figure [type locality: between Aden and Zanzibar, 1098 m].

Material examined. NIWA 41723, 1 juvenile female (cl 3.8 mm, cw 4.9 mm), off Curtis Island, Kermadec Islands, 30°17.59’S, 178°25.30’W, 398–412 m, stn K840, 28 Jul 1974.

Remarks. The specimen is a juvenile female, having a narrow male-like abdomen with a functioning abdominal locking mechanism, and rudimentary gonopores. Although only a juvenile, the specimen is identified with C. africanus based on its relatively short cheliped merus that does not extend markedly beyond the anterolateral margins of the carapace. Note that in the key to species of Calocarcinus given by Castro et al. (2004: 58), the couplets were inadvertently transposed, each leading to the incorrect species name. Plate 4C of Castro el al. (2004), however, correctly depicts adult Calocarcinus africanus .

As with Thyraplax truncata , the present specimen represents the first record of the genus and species from New Zealand waters. Three other species of trapeziid are known from the Kermadec Islands; all are species of Trapezia , which live amongst the branches of shallow water Scleractinia , principally species of Pocillopora ; Takeda & Webber 2006). Calocarcinus africanus , however, is a deep water species associated with antipatharian, alcyonacean, gorgonian and ahermatypic scleractinian corals ( Castro et al. 2007).

Distribution. Western Indian Ocean to the western Pacific including New Caledonia, the Norfolk Ridge, and now from the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand; 183–1098 m ( Galil & Clark 1990).

References

Calman, W. T. (1909) On a new crab taken from a deep-sea telegraph cable in the Indian Ocean. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 3, 3 (13), 30 - 33.

Castro, P. (2007) A reappraisal of the family Goneplacidae MacLeay, 1838 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura) and a revision of the subfamily Goneplacinae, with the description of 10 new genera and 18 new species. Zoosystema, 29, 609 - 774.

Galil, B. & Clark, P. F. (1990) Crustacea Decapoda: Notes on trapeziid crabs from New Caledonia including descriptions of two new species. In: Crosnier, A. (Ed.), Resultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, volume 6. Memoires du Museum National dHistoire Naturelle (Paris), A, 145, 369 - 388.

Takeda, M. & Webber, W. R. (2006) Crabs from the Kermadec Islands in the South Pacific. In: Tomida, Y., Kubodera, T., Akiyama, S. & Kityama, T. (Eds) Proceedings of the 7 th and 8 th Symposia on Collection Building and Natural History Studies in Asia and the Pacific Rim. National Science Museum Monographs, 34, 191 - 237.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A – C, Thyraplax truncata Castro, 2007, female (cl 9.0 mm, cw 12.0 mm), NIWA. D, Calocarcinus africanus Calman, 1909, juvenile female (cl 3.8 mm, cw 4.9 mm), NIWA. A, D, dorsal view. B, right female gonopore. C, right maxilliped 3. Scale: A = 3.0 mm, B = 1.5 mm, C = 0.6 mm, D = 0.8 mm.