Panulirus guttatus (Latreille, 1804)

Poupin, Joseph, 2024, A documented checklist of the Crustacea (Stomatopoda, Decapoda) of the southern Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil Amapá), European Journal of Taxonomy 954 (1), pp. 1-197 : 71

Panulirus guttatus (Latreille, 1804)

Figs 13–14

Squilla , Crangon , Americana , altera – Seba 1759 (1758–1761): 54, pl. 21 fig. 5, Suriname [“Haec pariter Surinamenfis”] = P. guttatus in Holthuis (1959a), but see Remark.

Panulirus guttatus – Holthuis 1959a: 124, Suriname [from Seba, 1759, with this remark “Apart from Seba’s record the species has not been reported from Suriname ”]. — Tavares 2002c: 316, Suriname.

Distribution/Habitat

WA; marine; 1– 25 m.

Remark

See Holthuis (1969) for Albertus Seba’s work and plates. The specimen illustrated by Seba (1759) was selected by Holthuis (1959a) as a lectotype for Panulirus guttatus (Latreille, 1804) . Holthuis (1959a) indicated that “the figure [in Seba] is good and judging by the fact that the antennular plate shows only two spines and that the abdominal somites have straight uninterrupted grooves, the species has to be assigned to P. guttatus (Latreille) … ”. The re-examination of Seba’s figure for this work ( Fig. 13 ) shows that: 1) the number of spines on the antennular plate is difficult to appreciate; and 2) the abdomen has transverse bands [like in Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) ] and no trace of spots [like P. guttatus ] (see Fig. 14 ). It seems, therefore, that Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) , distributed from North Carolina to Brazil, cannot be excluded for Seba’s record. Panulirus argus is reported off Suriname by Takeda (1983) while, apart from Seba’s old record, P. guttatus has never been mentioned yet off Suriname and, more generally, in sGuianas.

Figures

Fig. 13. The lobster Panulirus guttatus (Latreille, 1804) (N° 5, in red), first Decapoda Latreille, 1802 reported from French Guiana region (Suriname). Adapted from Seba (1759: pl. 21). Perhaps not P. guttatus but Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804), instead (see checklist).

Fig. 14. Comparison of the color pattern in Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) (left) and P. guttatus (Latreille, 1804) (right). Specimens from Martinique, photos Y. Buske.