Lyreidus brevifrons Sakai, 1937

Muñoz, Isabel, García-Isarch, Eva & Cuesta, Jose A., 2021, Annotated and updated checklist of marine crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) of Mozambique supported by morphological and molecular data from shelf and slope species of the “ MOZAMBIQUE ” surveys, Zootaxa 5056 (1), pp. 1-67 : 16-18

Lyreidus brevifrons Sakai, 1937

( Figure 4A )

Material examined. Stn. 40, 190m, ♂ 22.1× 38.3mm; ♂ 25.2× 44.9mm (IEO-CD-MZ07/1898); M07, Stn. 41, 44 m, ♂ 21.3× 37.9mm (IEO-CD-MZ07/1906), M08, Stn. 6, 428m, ♂ 19.9× 32.9mm (IEO-CD-MZ08/1798); M08, Stn. 32, 458m, ♂ 24.5× 43.6mm (IEO-CD-MZ08/1770); M08, Stn. 33, 530m, ♂ 19.5× 34.8mm (IEO-CD-MZ08/1782-1), 16S ( MZ 424919 ) , COI ( MZ 434766 ) , ♂ 17.8× 30.5mm (IEO-CD-MZ08/1782-2), 16S ( MZ 424920 ) , COI ( MZ 434767 ) ; M08, Stn. 78, 392m, ♂ 23.9× 41.7mm (IEO-CD-MZ08/1771), 16S ( MZ 424921 ) , COI ( MZ 434768 ) .

Habitat and distribution. Species distributed throughout Japan, the South China Sea, west of the Philippines and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania ( Sakai 1976), Madagascar, Reunion Island ( Poupin 2010; Ribes 1989) and New Caledonia ( Poupin 2010).

Results and remarks. Our specimens agree well with the descriptions and figures in Goeke (1985). Eight specimens were collected during March and April of M07, M08 and M09, at depths between 190 and 530m. These records confirm the presence of L. brevifrons in Mozambican waters, and extend its depth range to deeper waters up to 530m.

Colouration observed. Orange-brown, with the gastric and intestinal areas a little clearer, almost orange. Ambulatory legs were dorsally orange coloured, not homogeneous, with some clearest and pale patches, almost white. The ventral side of the specimens, legs and chelae were very pale, between rose and pale orange. Antennules and ocular peduncles were orange dark. A wide white line separates the gastric and branchial areas, and a big clear spot in both sides of the branchial area was observed in some individuals.

DNA barcodes. For 16S three equal sequences of 424, 500 and 507 bp were obtained, that fit 100% with a sequence of L. brevifrons from Taiwan ( KM 983394 ), a complete mitochondrial genome obtained by Shi et al. (2015). The three COI sequences represent two haplotypes, differing in two mutations, and fit 98.58 and 98.91% (nine and seven mutations), respectively with the COI sequence of the same specimen of L. brevifrons from Taiwan ( KM 983394 ).

Family RANINIDAE De Haan, 1839 [in De Haan, 1833 –1850]

According to Davie et al. (2015a), this family includes ten genera and 40 species. Only the genera Cosmonotus (White) , Notopus (De Haan) , Ranina (Lamarck) and Raninoides (H. Milne Edwards) have been cited off Mozambique ( Emmerson, 2016b,c).

Figures

FIGURE 4. A, Lyreidus brevifrons, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ08/1771; B, Raninoides crosnieri, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ07/1910; C, Calappa africana, ♀ IEO-CD-MZ08/1815; D, C. africana, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ08/1797; E, Mursia africana, ♂, IEO-CD-MZ08/1797; F, Mursia aspera, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ07/1903 (preserved); G, Mursia flamma, ♀ IEO-CD-MZ07/1904; H, Mursia sp, ♂ IEO-CD- MZ09/1775. Scale bars: 1cm.