Nematocarcinus exilis ( Bate, 1888 )

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 48

Nematocarcinus exilis ( Bate, 1888)

( Fig. 11G)

Stochasmus exilis Bate, 1888: 823 , pl. 132, fig. 14.

Nematocarcinus ensifer var. exilis . — de Man 1920: 75.

Nematocarcinus exilis . — Crosnier & Forest 1973: 116, figs. 32d, e; 33d–f. — Krygier & Pearcy 1981: 89.

Diagnosis. Length of rostrum about 0.4–0.5 times as long as length of carapace, more or less straight, with 20–25 dorsal, no ventral teeth. Carapace relatively smooth, with sharp antennal, pterygostomian teeth. Stylocerite shorter than first segment of antennular peduncle. Basicerite with sharp lateral tooth, scaphocerite with lateral tooth slightly exceeding blade. Third maxilliped elongated, with exopod, strap-like epipod. Pereopods 1–4 with exopods, strap-like epipods; pereopods 1, 2 chelate, without divided carpus; pereopods 3–5 very long, with simple dactyls. Abdominal somite 3 overlapping somite 4 on posterodorsal end, pleura of abdominal somite 5 with point. Telson not longer than uropods. Carapace length 11–23 mm.

Color in life. Not reported.

Habitat and depth. Epibenthic, 1200–4000 m.

Range. Off Oregon , Eastern Atlantic from southeast of Ireland to Morocco and Mediterranean. Type locality off Canary Is. (30 ˚ 38' N, 18 ˚ 38' W) .

Remarks. Krygier & Pearcy (1981) based their identification of N. exilis on the features given by Crosnier & Forest (1973) for differentiating N. exilis from N. ensife r ( Smith, 1882). Nematocarcinus ensifer , however, is the species reported previously from the eastern Pacific by Faxon (1895) and Burukovsky (2001). Further study of these two polymorphic species is needed to determine the American distributions of the species, especially in the northeastern Pacific.