Petrolisthes leptocheles ( Heller, 1861 )

Naderloo, Reza & Türkay, Michael, 2012, Decapod crustaceans of the littoral and shallow sublittoral Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf: Faunistics, Biodiversity and Zoogeography 3374, Zootaxa 3374 (1), pp. 1-67 : 21

Petrolisthes leptocheles ( Heller, 1861)

Persian Gulf. Iran (Heller 1961; Haig 1966; Apel 2001; present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Qeshm I. (12 stations around the island), Mahtabi, Moghdan . Bushehr Province: Dayyer, Bandargah, Bushehr (Jofreh).

General distribution. Northwestern Indian Ocean: Somalia, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, southern Oman (Dhofar), Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Pakistan.

Habitat. Rocky/cobble intertidal.

Remarks. This is one of the most common species of porcellanid crabs in rocky habitats along the Iranian coast. Interestingly, this species has still not been recorded from the Arabian coast. Apel (2001) did not find it neither at the Saudi Arabian and nor the UAE coasts in his extensive sampling.