Wahrania, Charbonnier & Garassino & Pasini & Chény, 2024

Charbonnier, Sylvain, Garassino, Alessandro, Pasini, Giovanni & Chény, Cédric, 2024, Review of brachyuran crabs from the late Miocene (Messinian) of Oran, Algeria, Geodiversitas 46 (2), pp. 13-29 : 18-19

Wahrania n. gen.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7EA2BD4D-06F9-47E8-918B-2BF252AD8E37

ETYMOLOGY. — From Wahran, name of Oran in Berber language. The gender of the genus is feminine.

TYPE SPECIES. — Maia [sic] arambourgi Van Straelen, 1937 .

DIAGNOSIS. — As for subfamily.

DISCUSSION

Van Straelen (1937) described Maja arambourgi based on one single complete carapace. He assigned the specimen to Maja Lamarck, 1801 ( Majidae Samouelle, 1819 ) for the pyriform carapace, lateral margins with spines, and bifid rostrum. We do not concur with this systematic assignment. Indeed, the reappraisal of the holotype has highlighted some characters such as the long diverging pseudorostral spines (= rostrum), the lack of the intercalated spines, and the postorbital spine not cupped to protect eye that do not fit the main diagnostic characters of the genera within the Majidae which have ovate carapace and orbits with intercalated spine ( Schweitzer et al. 2020). Based on Schweitzer et al. (2020), the long diverging pseudorostral spines, the lack of the intercalated spines, and the postorbital spine not cupped to protect eye are diagnostic characters of the Epialtidae to which Wahrania n. gen. is assigned. The five long marginal spines (including the hepatic spine flanked by accessorial spines) plus the very long diverging pseudorostral spines are not shared with the twenty-one fossil genera within the five subfamilies and lead us to place Wahrania n. gen. in its own subfamily.