Sphaerozius nitidus Stimpson, 1858

Clark, Paul F., Ng, Peter K. L., Fransen, Charles H. J. M., McLaughlin, Patsy A., Dworschak, Peter C. & Baba, Keiji, 2008, A checklist of Crustacea Decapoda collected from Conic Island Cave and adjacent areas of Hong Kong, Journal of Natural History 42 (9 - 12), pp. 913-926 : 920-921

Sphaerozius nitidus Stimpson, 1858

Material examined

Conic Island Cave, 22 ° 219540 N 114 ° 239220E, Hong Kong; 1 ♀ (11.6× 8.5 mm) ( NHM 2003.698 ), coll. 22 October 2002 .

Remarks

This is a well known species associated with fouling organisms, preferring areas with relatively fast flowing waters. Hong Kong is its type locality (see also Stimpson 1907). Only one species is currently recognized in the current literature, S. nitidus Stimpson, 1858 , in Sphaerozius Stimpson, 1858 , but indications are that there are at least two taxa. Examination of the syntypes of one of the purported synonyms, Cancer scaber Fabricius, 1798 , in ZMUC (1 „, 15.5× 12.3 mm, Cru 112-4; 1 „, 18.0×14.0 mm, Cru 112-1; 1 ♀, 18.4× 14.2 mm, Cru 112-2; 1 ♀, 18.4× 14.2 mm, 112-3; 1 ♀, 17.7× 13.5 mm, Cru 112-5; ‘‘ India Orientali’’, Dom. Daldorff) suggests it is a distinct species, distinguished most easily by its far more granulose carapace. For this present study a good series of specimens was examined and these are referable to S. nitidus , from Singapore, Malaysia and southern China. Sakai (1999a, 31) recognised Sphaerozius panope ( Herbst, 1801) as a distinct species in his reappraisal of Herbst’s taxa, but from his figure ( Sakai, 1999a: pl. 16C), it is clear that it is the same as Sphaerozius scabrus ( Fabricius, 1798) . Pilumnopeus granulosus Miers, 1880 , is also probably the same taxon.

With regard to the other junior synonyms of S. nitidus , viz. Actumnus nudus A. Milne-Edwards, 1867 , Menippe ortmanni De Man, 1899 , Menippe convexa Rathbun, 1894 , and Sphaerozius oeschi Ward, 1941 , all appear to be identical with what is here recognized as S. nitidus . In any case, a revision is clearly necessary