Anomura, MacLeay, 1838

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 : 6

Infraorder Anomura

Anomurans (infraorder Anomura ) represent one of the least known groups of decacopds of the Persian Gulf. Heller (1861) reported on some species of Decapoda , including two porcellanid crabs [ Petrolisthes leptocheles ( Heller, 1861) , and Petrolisthes rufescens (Heller, 1961) ]. Alcock (1905) recorded Clibanarius striolatus Dana, 1852 , Dardanus vulnerans (Thallwitz, 1892) , and Pylopaguropsis zebra ( Henderson, 1893) , from the same area. Nobili (1906a) recorded 19 additional species of anomurans, 10 hermit and nine porcellanid crabs. The anomuran collection of the Danish Expedition, 1937/38 was largely unexamined, except the porcellanid crabs examined by Haig (1966). She recorded 12 species, including five new records and one new species, Porcellana persica Haig, 1966 .

Apel (2001) collected some material from the Arabian coast and reviewed the previous literature on the Decapoda of the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters. He listed 33 anomuran species, of which 25 were hermit crabs and 18 porcellanids. Moradmand (2007) recorded in an unpublished thesis 15 hermit crab species from the Iranian coast, of which 13 were collected from the intertidal zone. Naderloo et al. (2012) provided an annotated check list of the known hermit crabs from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, including five new records, for a total number of 39 species of hermit crabs in the Persian Gulf. The Porcellanidae , one of the more diverse groups in the area, is currently being revised by Naderloo & Apel. Twenty-nine species of Anomura were collected from the Iranian intertidal zone, of which Polyonyx loimicola Sankolli, 1965 , is new to the Gulf.