Capilliporcellana sp.

(Fig. 3 D–F)

Material examined. New Caledonia. Ouen Island, Prony Bay, lagoon, 22°23’S, 166°32’E, 31 m, Aug. 1993, coll. B. Richer de Forges, 1 female CL 7.6 mm.

Remarks. The genus Capilliporcellana Haig, 1978 closely resembles Enosteoides Johnson, 1970, but differs in lacking spines on the lateral margins of the carapace, in having dense plumose setae on the pterygostomian flaps, and chelae being inflated and each with the dactylus opening obliquely (in Enosteoides, the chelae are flattened and the dactyli open horizontally). Capilliporcellana includes only two species, C. murakamii (Miyake, 1942) originally recorded from Palau and C. wolffi Haig, 1981 b from the Gulf of Thailand and Philippines. These two species were described on the basis of only one and three specimens, respectively. Nakasone & Miyake (1972) recorded the second specimen of C. murakamii (as Porcellana murakamii) from Amakura in Kyushu, south Japan.

The specimen from New Caledonia resembles C. wolffi rather than C. murakamii in having a broad carapace (Fig. 3 D), inflated chelipeds (Fig. 3 E), and relatively robust ambulatory legs (Fig. 3 F), but clearly differs on account of the meri of the ambulatory legs being not tuberculate on the lateral surface (Fig. 3 F) in agreement with that of C. murakamii . This specimen may belong to an undescribed species. Additional similar specimens and re-examination of the holotype and a Japanese specimen reported by Nakasone & Miyake (1972) of C. murakamii are needed to determine the status of the New Caledonian specimen.