Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775), Brachyura

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 : 40

Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775)

Persian Gulf. Kuwait ( Jones 1986a), Saudi Arabia ( Basson et al. 1977; Apel & Spiridonov 1998; Apel 2001), Bahrain ( Apel & Spiridonov 1998; Apel 2001), Qatar ( Al-Khayat & Jones 1999), UAE ( Nobili 1906a; Titgen 1982; Al-Ghais & Cooper 1996; Cooper 1997; Apel & Spiridonov 1998; Apel 2001; Lai et al. 2010), Iran ( Stephensen 1946; Naderloo & Sari 2007b; Hosseini 2009; present study).

Iran. This species is widely distributed along the Iranian coast and has been found in any sampling station from the southeastern coast at Bandar Tiab to the northernmost part of the Iranian coast. During the present study P. segnis has also been collected in the lower reaches of the Arvandroud River about 30 km. off the marine coast in Arvandkenar (Yadman Shohaday-Valfajr).

General distribution. Western Indian Ocean: South Africa, East Africa, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Socotra, Persian Gulf, Pakistan, West of Indian sub-continent, and as a Erythrean alien in the Mediterranean Sea ( Galil 2011).

Habitat. Rocky/cobble intertidal, mangroves, extending down subtidally to 65 m.

Remarks. Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) , has long been though being a widely distributed species in the Indo-West Pacific. This species-complex has recently been thoroughly revised using morphological and molecular characters by Lai et al. (2010). They have recognized four different species within Portunus pelagicus sensu lato including P. pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) , P. armatus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1861) , P. reticulatus (Herbst, 1799) , and P. segnis (Forskål, 1775) . Of which the latter is restricted to the Western Indian Ocean including the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.