Cancer poiae Curtiss, 1938

Ng, Peter K. L., Eldredge, Lucius G. & Evenhuis, Neal L., 2011, The names of decapod and stomatopod Crustacea from Tahiti, French Polynesia, established by Anthony Curtiss in 1938 and 1944, Zootaxa 3099, pp. 43-56 : 53

Cancer poiae Curtiss, 1938 [otéa]

Cancer dentatus Herbst, 1785: 186 .

Cancer poiae Curtiss, 1938: 177 , n. syn.

The description of this edible species is rather brief: “the body and legs are brown above, spotted with whitish … the pincers are short, and equal to one another in size. The upper shell has sharp edges. The eyes are brown. The legs have some scattered black and whitish hairs upon them” ( Curtiss 1938: 177) but fits well with Etisus dentatus (Herbst, 1785) (Xanthidae) . This species is common in Tahiti, and is often eaten, as observed by Curtiss. A second species of Etisus also occurs in French Polynesia, E. splendidus Rathbun, 1906 , but this species is less common, has a red carapace, and does not have the colours and patterns described by Curtiss (see Poupin & Juncker 2010).