Oncinopus neptunus Adams and White, 1848

Shaga, I Bevin, Priya, K, Ramar, Selvakumar, Srinidhi, S, Mohan, G Chandra, Ranganathan, Sukanya, Moulvi, S M M & Mani, Bhuvaneswari, 2023, A Small Collection of Subtidal Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) from the Palau Islands Collected by Dredging, Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science. Series A, Zoology 49 (1), pp. 7-42 : 9

Oncinopus neptunus Adams and White, 1848

Material examined. Off Kwannon, Koror I., Palau Is., dredged; 1 ♀ (cb 8.6×cl 12.0 mm),

NSMT-Cr 30956; June 17, 1980; K. Baba leg.

Remarks. It is well known that the G1 is the most important criterion for the definite identification of the Oncinopus species ( Takeda and Miyake, 1969; Davie, 2011). The identification of females should be based mainly on the shape of the front, and the present female was identified as O. neptunus among the five congeneric species, because of the front divided into two lobes by a median small notch. Griffin and Tranter (1986) examined many specimens and fully discussed the taxonomic status of four species then known.

Distribution. Widely distributed in the whole Indo-West Pacific from Hawaii and Japan through some localities in the Philippines and Indonesia southwards to New Caledonia and the east coast of Australia, and to the east Africa and the Red Sea. The recorded bathymetric range is from 16 to 72 m. New to the Palau Islands.