Pinnixa occidentalis Rathbun, 1893

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 254-255

Pinnixa occidentalis Rathbun, 1893

( Fig. 58I–L)

Pinnixa occidentalis Rathbun, 1893: 248 ; 1904: 187, pl. 7, fig. 4, pl. 9, figs. 6, 6a (part); 1917: pl. 34, fig. 1, text fig. 96. — Holmes 1900: 8. — Weymouth 1910: text fig. 3. — Schmitt 1921: 262, pl. 42, figs. 5, 6; text fig. 156. — Schmitt et al. 1973: 115. — Hart 1982: 242, fig. 101. — Zmarzly 1992: 700, fig. 12. — Campos-Gonzalez 2007: 646.

Pinnixa californiensis Rathbun, 1893: 249 ; 1904: 187, pl. 7, fig. 3. — Holmes 1900: 90. — Weymouth 1910: 56 (part).

Diagnosis. Carapace about twice as long as wide, dorsal surface pitted, irregular. Carapace with cardiac crest, crest bilobed in males; anterolateral margin with granulated ridge running from orbit diagonally outward, backward; crossing hepatic region. Chelipeds stout, setose, immovable finger short, markedly deflexed, with stout tooth in middle, small tooth near apex; dactyl much curved, with or without tooth at middle. Male chela more robust than that of female, with proportionally shorter fixed finger having stout, flat tooth proximally. Pereopods 2–5 setose, dactyls slender. Pereopod 2 shorter than chelipeds, pereopod 3 longer stronger than pereopod 2; pereopod 4 longest, pereopod 5 with dactyl as long as propodus, reaching carpus of pereopod 4. Male carapace length 9.5 mm, female 10.5 mm.

Color in life. Dirty white. The color note is based on specimens taken in box cores off Santa Barbara County, California .

Habitat and depth. In green sand or mud, free-living or symbiotic with echiuroid worms ( Echiurus alaskanus Fisher, 1948 ; Listriolobus pelodes Fisher, 1946 ), shallow subtidal zone to 439 m. Very common along continental shelf of southern California.

Range. Unalaska to Magdalena Bay, Baja California. Unverified report from "Gulf of California.” Type locality south of Unimak I., Alaska .

Remarks. Hart (1982) suggested that P. occidentalis might in fact represent a species complex.