Frodromia McLay, 1993

Guinot, Danièle & Quenette, Gwenaël, 2005, The spermatheca in podotreme crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Podotremata) and its phylogenetic implications, Zoosystema 27 (2), pp. 267-342 : 290

Genus Frodromia McLay, 1993

Frodromia is dealt herein in the Dromiinae , despite some sphaerodromiine characters and its uncertain status ( Guinot & Tavares 2003: 108, figs 25, 26). The thoracic sternum ( Fig. 12A ) is rather wide, with a developed flat bottom. The suture 7/8 is rather short and almost longitudinal. Spermathecal aperture lies not very far from the P3 coxae, but slightly behind the level of female gonopore, and is raised on a tubercule and well visible. The location of the female gonopore is peculiar, being displaced very close to the anterior border of the coxa and at the summit of a tubular process, so that the P3 coxae are markedly dimorphic ( Guinot & Tavares 2003: fig. 26). The axial skeleton ( Fig. 12B ) shows only one median bridge, a dromiine character, instead of the two transverse bridges characteristic of the Sphaerodromiinae ( Fig. 17 ).

Figures

FIG. 12. — Frodromia? atypica (Sakai, 1936), ovigerous female 10.6 × 9.9 mm, New Caledonia, McLay det. (MNHN-B 26360); A, thoracic sternum; B, thoracic axial skeleton, with endopleurites cut away at left to expose spermatheca. Abbreviations: a, spermathecal aperture at extremity of sternal suture 7/8; b, bulb; bo, flat bottom of the sterno-abdominal depression; br, transverse bridge; cx1, cx3, P1, P5 coxae; e4, e5, episternites 4, 5; g, female gonopore; i.p., intertagmal phragma; sr, spur on P3 coxa; s8, internal surface of sternite 8; tb, tubular process on P3 coxa; 4, 8, sternites 4, 8; 7/8, thoracic sternal suture 7/8. Scale bars: 1 mm.

FIG. 17. — Sphaerodromia lamellata Crosnier, 1994, ovigerous female 36.4 × 36.2 mm, New Caledonia, Norfolk Ridge (MNHN- B 28389). See Guinot & Tavares (2003: fig. 21C as S. ducoussoi McLay, 1991) for the peculiar location of the spermathecae; A, axial skeleton, with connections by fusion; B, detailed view of posterior part. Abbreviations: br1, anterior transverse bridge; br2, posterior transverse bridge; cx3, P3 coxae; i.p., intertagmal phragma. Scale bar: A, 1 cm.