Nursia rubifera Müller, 1887

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 : 31-32

Nursia rubifera Müller, 1887

Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia ( Apel, 2001), Iran (present study)

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Qeshm I. (five stations along the south coast), Bandar-Lengeh . Bushehr Province: Khalij-Nayband, Bandar Dayyer, Bushehr (Jofreh).

General distribution. Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Pakistan, Travancore (southwestern India), Sri Lanka.

Habitat. Rocky/cobble intertidal.

Remarks. Nursia rubifera is the most common species of the genus or even the commonest leucosiid crab occurring in the rocky intertidal zone along the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf. Apel (2001) collected two specimens from the Saudi Arabian coast, and this is the first record of the species from the Iranian side of the Gulf. Three more species of the genus have been recorded from the Persian Gulf including Nursia blandfordi Alcock, 1896 (recorded by Alcock 1896; Apel 2001), Nursia persica Alcock, 1896 (recorded by Alcock 1896; Stephensen 1946), Nursia plicata (Herbst, 1804) (recorded by Alcock 1896; Stephensen 1946; Apel 2001; Naderloo & Sari 2007b). All these three species are occurring in subtidal sandy substrate, therefore they are not included in the list of the present study. Nursia persica reported by Stephensen (1946), regarding the drawing of the first male gonopod, should be more likely assigned to the most common species N. rubifera .