Neosarmatium asiaticum Ragionieri, Fratini & Schubart, 2012

Lagare, Nickel Jean S., Mapi-Ot, Emmarie F., Molina, Ziljih S., Neri, Jemateo B., Nuñeza, Olga M. & Mendoza, Jose Christopher E., 2020, On a collection of freshwater and estuarine crabs (Crustacea: Brachyura) from Mindanao Island, the Philippines, Zootaxa 4868 (3), pp. 301-330 : 308

Neosarmatium asiaticum Ragionieri, Fratini & Schubart, 2012

Fig. 3A

Sesarma meinerti, Bürger 1893: 617 .— Estampador 1937: 538; 1959: 95. Not Neosarmatium meinerti (De Man, 1887) . Sesarma (Sarmatium) meinerti, De Man 1929 : fig. 4. Not Neosarmatium meinerti (De Man, 1887) .

Neosarmatium asiaticum Ragioneri et al. 2012: 82 , tab. 1.

Material examined. 4 males, 34.7 by 28.5 mm—37.5 by 30.5 mm, 1 female, 22.8 by 19 mm ( ZRC; JBN170401–05 ), Brgy. Poblacion, Manukan town , Zamboanga del Norte prov., coll. J. B. Neri , 17 Nov. , 2017 ; 1 male, 37.0 by 30.0 mm, ( ZRC; JBN170502 ), Brgy. Bantayan, Sindangan town , Zamboanga del Norte prov., coll. J.B. Neri, 5 Sep. 2017 .

Remarks. Ragioneri et al. (2012) revised the Neosarmatium meinerti (De Man, 1887) species complex, and restricted N. meinerti (type locality: Mauritius) to the islands of the western Indian Ocean while recognizing & describing three new species: viz. N. africanum (type locality: Somalia), which is distributed along the eastern coast of Africa and northwestern Madagascar, N. asiaticum (type locality: Tainan, Taiwan), which is distributed in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean; and N. australiense (type locality: Darwin, Australia), which is only found in northwestern Australia.

The species found in the Philippines is N. asiaticum , which has been reported as Sesarma meinerti from the islands of Bohol ( Bürger 1893; Estampador 1937, 1959) and Jolo (De Man 1929). The present material from Mindanao agrees well with the description and illustrations in Ragioneri et al. (2012), including the live colouration, wherein the chelipeds are light yellow, the carapace is brownish with a thin yellow margin on the anterolateral and supraorbital margins, and the ambulatory legs are reddish-ornage. The crabs were found in muddy burrows and some under dead palm branches in mangrove swamps during the day; and were observed to be in the same habitat with the land crab, Cardisoma carnifex , and sesarmids such as Neosarmatium fourmanoiri and Tiomanium indicum (see below).

New Mindanao record.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Colour photos of recently preserved crabs (dorsal habitus). A, Neosarmatium asiaticum Ragionieri, Fratini & Schubart, 2012, male, 37.0 by 30.0 mm (ZRC), Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte; B, Neosarmatium fourmanoiri Serène, 1973, male, 40.6 by 33.8mm (ZRC), Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte; C, Neosarmatium indicum (A. Milne-Edwards, 1868), male, 14.4 by 12.1 mm (ZRC), Basilisa, Dinagat Island; D, Parasesarma anambas Yeo, Rahayu & Ng, 2004, male, 8.6 by 7.0 mm (ZRC), Lianga, Surigao del Sur; E, Leptarma jamelense (Rathbun, 1914), male, 10.6 by 9.3 mm (ZRC), Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental; F, Parasesarma kuekenthali (De Man, 1902), male, 15.4 by 13.0 mm (ZRC), Basilisa, Dinagat I. Scale bars: 10 mm.