Cranuca Beinlich & von Hage, 2006

Shih, Hsi-Te, Ng, Peter K. L., Davie, Peter J. F., Schubart, Christoph D., Türkay, Michael, Naderloo, Reza, Jones, Diana & Liu, Min-Yun, 2016, Systematics of the family Ocypodidae Rafinesque, 1815 (Crustacea: Brachyura), based on phylogenetic relationships, with a reorganization of subfamily rankings and a review of the taxonomic status of Uca Leach, 1814, sensu lato and its subgenera, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 64, pp. 139-175 : 153

Cranuca Beinlich & von Hage n, 2006, status nov. ( Fig. 9A )

Cranuca Beinlich & von Hagen, 2006: 25 . Type species Gelasimus inversa Hoffmann, 1874 , by original designation. Gender feminine.

Diagnosis. Medium-sized species (carapace width about 20 mm in adults); dorsal carapace surface without posterolateral striae; front broad; cornea round; eyestalks slender; adult male cheliped very large, right- or left-handed, pollex without ventral carina, major dactylus with large subdistal tooth, outer surface of major manus with moderate-sized tubercles; male pleonites free; without pleonal clasping apparatus; gastric mill without large brownish setae at base of posterior tooth plate. Indo-West Pacific.

Species included:

Cranuca inversa ( Hoffmann, 1874) .

Remarks. Cranuca is monotypic, containing only a single species, the BF C. inversa , which occurs only in East Africa ( Fig. 4 ). This species was placed under Amphiuca (= Paraleptuca ) as a subspecies (of U. inversa ) together with U. sindensis by Crane (1975). However, some unique morphological characters led Beinlich & von Hagen (2006) to established Cranuca for this species. This decision was later supported by molecular evidence that showed a close relationship with the NF Gelasimus species ( Shih et al., 2013b; Fig. 2 ).

Figures

Fig. 9. Photographs of some species of the genera Cranuca, Leptuca and Minuca. A, C. inversa (East Africa); B, L. deichmanni (Panama); C, L. speciosa (Bahamas); D, L. terpsichores (Panama); E, L. thayeri (Brazil); F, L. umbratila (Panama); G, M. brevifrons (Costa Rica); H, M. burgersi (Bahamas). A, courtesy of S. Cannicci.

Fig. 4. The distribution of 11 genera of fiddler crabs, mainly based on Crane (1975) and the website (http://www.fiddlercrab.info/index. html; Rosenberg, 2014).

Fig. 2. A Bayesian inference (BI) tree of the family Ocypodidae and outgroups, based on the combined 28S, 16S and COI markers. The solid circle at the node means it is strongly supported by both BI (≥ 90) and ML (≥ 70); and the open circle means only one method is strongly supported. Name of species or genus quoted means it is suggested as a synonym in this study.