Nematopaguroides pusillus Forest & Saint Laurent, 1968

Nucci, Paulo Ricardo & Melo, Gustavo Augusto Schmidt De, 2011, Hermit crabs from Brazil: Family Paguridae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Paguroidea), except Pagurus, Zootaxa 3104, pp. 26-41 : 35

Nematopaguroides pusillus Forest & Saint Laurent, 1968

( Figs 1 I, 2I, 3I)

Nematopaguroides ? pusillus Forest & Saint Laurent, 1968: 159, figs 142–146. — Coelho & Ramos-Porto, 1986: 43. — Rieger, 1998: 417. — Melo, 1999: 118, fig. 64.

Nematopaguroides pusillus .— Abele & Kim, 1986: 359, 386, 387, figs i–k. — McLaughlin et al., 2010: 31.

Material examined. Not available.

Diagnosis. Shield as broad as long. Rostrum rounded, tip triangular, exceeding lateral projections. Ocular peduncles long and slender, narrowed at midlength, corneae slightly dilated; ocular acicles triangular, broad at base, tip rounded, with acute subdistal spine inserted ventrally. Chelipeds short and robust, right stronger than left. First and second ambulatory legs of the right side longer than those of the left side. Males with right and left sexual tubes. Telson separated by shallow cleft into 2 slightly asymmetrical lobes, with short spines on inner margins.

Distribution. Western Atlantic: United States (Florida) and Brazil (Pernambuco).

Habitat. Type material collected from 75 m, on calcareous algae and corals.

Remarks. According to Forest & Saint Laurent (1968), they hesitated to establish a new genus based on a single specimen of N. pusillus , which has two sexual tubes. Although exceptional, this character was insufficient to establish a generic diagnosis. Thus, they accommodated N. pusillus in the genus already established.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Shield and cephalic region: A, Agaricochirus gibbosimanus; B, Anisopagurus bartletti; C, Catapagurus sharreri; D, Goreopagurus lemaitrei; E, Iridopagurus iris; F, I. reticulatus; G, I. violaceus; H, Nematopaguroides fagei; I, N. pusillus; J, Phimochirus holthuisi; K, P. occlusus; L, Propagurus gaudichaudii; M, Pylopagurus discoidalis; N, Rhodochirus rosaceus; and O, Tomopagurus wassi. (In B and I the scale corresponds to the length of the shield).