Petrolisthes artifrons Haig, 1960

Ferreira, Luciane Augusto De Azevedo & Anker, Arthur, 2021, An annotated and illustrated checklist of the porcelain crabs of Panama (Decapoda: Anomura), Zootaxa 5045 (1), pp. 1-154 : 70

Petrolisthes artifrons Haig, 1960

Petrolisthes artifrons Haig, 1960: 27 , 119, pl. 22: fig 4; Gore 1982: 12; Werding & Haig 1982: 66; Moran 1984: 78.

Material examined. None.

Previous records from Panama. Gore (1982).

Distribution. East Pacific: El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama (Ciudad de Panamá, including Amador Causeway, Isla Otoque, Punta Guayabo Chiquito in Darién), Colombia and Ecuador ( Haig 1960; Gore 1982; Moran 1984).

Ecology. Intertidal and subtidal, presently known depth range: 0–20 m; under rocks and on sandy and shell bottom ( Haig 1960; Gore 1982), also in crevices of intertidal “arenaceous worm tubes” ( Moran 1984).

Remarks. Petrolisthes artifrons is allied to P. crenulatus Lockington, 1878 P. ortmanni Nobili, 1901 , P. hians Nobili, 1901 , P. lewisi ( Glassell, 1936) and P. cocoensis Haig, 1960 , but can be readily distinguished from all of them by a narrower, more produced and less deflexed front of the carapace ( Haig 1960). This uncommon species appears to have the same distributional range as P. lewisi and the two species may occur together in the same habitats ( Haig 1960; Gore 1982). Gore (1982) separated P. artifrons from P. lewisi by: (1) the P1 carpus with granulation less pronounced and furrows rather shallow (vs. granulation and furrows more distinct in P. lewisi ); (2) the rugae on the P1 much less developed; (3) the posterior margin of the P1 carpus rounded (vs. nearly straight in P. lewisi ); and (4) the proximal margin of the P1 carpus irregularly subdivided into a two-toothed lobe mesially (vs. distinctly and more evenly bi- or tridentate in P. lewisi ).