Upogebia darwinii (Miers, 1884)

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 : 19

Upogebia darwinii (Miers, 1884)

Persian Gulf. UAE ( Nobili 1906a), Iran ( Sakai 2006; present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Qeshm I. (Basaeedu, Dustku, Namakdan).

General distribution. Indo-West Pacific: East Africa, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Thailand, South China Sea, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia (Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland).

Habitat. Rocky/cobble intertidal to 32 m. It is found in sponge.

Remarks. Upogebia darwinii has frequently been confused with U. hexaceras (Ortmann, 1894) and U. octoceras ( Nobili, 1906a) . Subsequently, their taxonomic position was extensively discussed by several authors (e.g. Sakai 1982, 2006; Nguyen 1990). Finally, Sakai (2006) after examining a huge amount of material including type specimens of these three species, and with reference to their variable morphologies and wide distribution ranges, discussed the associated problem in detail ( Sakai 2006:101–114). He finally came to the result that all three species are the same. Therefore, he suggested that U. octoceras and U. hexaceras both were junior synonyms of U. darwinii . Nguyen (1990: 984, tab. 3) compared these three species regarding some important characters including: 1- Number of rostral spines, 2- Lateral expansions of sixth abdominal segment, 3- Denticulation of posterior border of sixth abdominal segment, 4- Shape of telson, 5- Presence/absence of mesiodistal spine on the palm of the cheliped, 6- Denticulation on the cutting edge of fixed finger. Regarding almost all mentioned characters above, our specimens are closely related to the U. octoceras ; however, the posterior margin of the sixth abdominal segment is weekly dentate. Upogebia hexaceras reported by Nobili (1906a) from the Persian Gulf was identified by Nguyen (1990: 981) as U. octoceras . Sakai (1982, 2006) identified both species U. hexaceras and U. hirtifrons (White, 1847) with U. darwinii . For more detailed taxonomic data see Sakai (2006).