A new genus and species of pinnotherid crab from Karachi, northern Arabian Sea (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura)
Author
KAZMI, Q. B.
Marine Reference Collection & Resource Centre, University of Karachi, Karachi- 75270, Pakistan
Author
MANNING, R. B.
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
text
Journal of Natural History
2003
2001-09-28
37
9
1085
1089
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00222930110108353
journal article
7427
10.1080/00222930110108353
64fed6a7-107a-424d-a7b9-5e2173e2e308
1464-5262
4675206
Sindheres
gen. nov.
Diagnosis.
Size small, carapace
3.25 mm
long, 5.0 mm wide in a unique
holotype
. Carapace sub-hexagonal, narrowing anteriorly, width greater than length, width greatest posterior to mid-length; regions poorly defined. Front very slightly projecting. MXP3 exopod with flagellum; ischium and merus indistinguishably fused, elongate; inner margin convex; palp three-segmented; propodus spatulate, longer than carpus, dactylus styliform, inserted below mid-length of ventral margin of propodus. Walking legs equal right and left; WL2 longest of walking legs, WL1–3 dactyli similar, subequal, falcate, strongly curved to sharp apex; WL4 dactylus slightly shorter than dactyli of WL1–3. Female abdomen of seven free somites, abdomen extended beyond bases of legs. Male unknown.
Type
species.
Sindheres karachiensis
new species
, by present designation and monotypy.
Etymology.
An arbitrary combination of the name of the
Pakistan
province of
Sindh
and the ending -
eres
. The gender is musculine.
Remarks.
Members of
Sindheres
can be distinguished at once from members of
Pinnotheres
Bosc, 1802
, in having the dactylus of MXP3 inserted near the midlength of the ventral margin of the propodus (
Manning, 1993
:
figure 1
(c)), rather than at its base (
Manning, 1993
:
figure 1
(b)). In this feature
Sindheres
resembles the eastern Atlantic
Nepinnotheres
Manning, 1993
, but in members of
Nepinnotheres
the carapace is sub-circular, with the length and width subequal, rather than subhexagonal, with the length much shorter than the width. In
Sindheres
, the mesial margin of the MXP3 ischium-merus is convex, whereas in
N. pinnotheres
the mesial margin of MXP3 is slightly concave proximally with an obtuse projection subdistally.