An annotated and illustrated checklist of the porcelain crabs of Panama (Decapoda: Anomura)
Author
Ferreira, Luciane Augusto De Azevedo
0000-0003-1683-9962
Author
Anker, Arthur
0000-0002-5350-4267
arthuranker7@gmail.com
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-09-27
5045
1
1
154
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5045.1.1
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5045.1.1
1175-5326
5532178
B12C62E3-70D0-4989-BB1A-F4A75C492D8F
Polyonyx nitidus
Lockington, 1878
(
Figs. 80
,
81
)
Polyonyx nitidus
Lockington 1878: 396
, 405;
Haig 1960: 239
, fig. 12(2);
Haig 1962: 192
;
Werding & Haig 1982: 69
; Hickman &
Zimmeran 2000: 68, unnumbered colour photograph; Werding 2001: 115;
Hiller
et al.
2004: 132
;
Moscoso 2012: 82
, fig. 5H.
Polyonyx quadriungulatus
Glassell 1935: 93
, pl. 9;
Haig 1960: 236
, fig. 12(1), pl. 41, fig. 2.
Material examined
.
Panama
[
Pacific
]: 1 ov. female, cl 9.2, cw 13.2,
1 male
, cl 7.5, cw 10.0 (
MZUSP 33661
)
,
Panama
,
Las Perlas Is
.,
Isla
Bartolomé
, depth
0–1 m
at low tide, under large rocks in coarse sand, in tube of
Chaetopterus
sp.
, leg.
A. Anker
,
19.04.2015
; 1 ov. female, cl 3.0, cw 4.0,
1 male
, cl 2.8, cw 3.9 (
MZUSP 33664
),
Las Perlas Is.
, small rocky island off north-eastern coast of
Isla
Saboga
, depth
0–1.5 m
at low tide, under rocks in coarse sand, in tube of
Chaetopterus
sp.
, leg.
A. Anker
,
22.04.2015
.
Previous records from
Panama
.
Haig (1962)
.
Distribution
. East Pacific:
USA
(
California
),
Mexico
,
Panama
(Las Perlas Is., Taboga Is.),
Colombia
and
Ecuador
(including
Galápagos
) (
Haig 1960
, as
P. quadriungulatus
and
P. nitidus
;
Hickman & Zimmerman 2000
;
Hiller
et al
. 2004
; present study).
Ecology
. Intertidal and (more common) subtidal, known depth range:
0–47 m
; on sandy or sandy-muddy bottoms, often with rocks and rubble; obligate symbiont of large parchment worms,
Chaetopterus
sp.
cf.
variopedatus
, usually in male-female pairs in each tube (
Haig 1962
; present study, see
Fig. 81
).
Remarks
.
Haig (1960)
treated
P. quadriungulatus
Glassell, 1935
from the warm-temperate outer Baja California as a species morphologically distinct from
P. nitidus
, supposed to occur in the Gulf of California and further south along the Pacific coast to
Ecuador
, including the
Galápagos Islands
. She was aware that the differences between these two presumed species were rather slight, suggesting that they may also be considered as subspecies of a single species. Werding (2001) concluded that the characters used by
Haig (1960)
to distinguish
P. quadriangulatus
and
P. nitidus
(number and configuration of movable spinules on the propodi and number of fixed spines on the dactyli of P2–P4) are not consistent, and that therefore
P. quadriungulatus
should be treated as a junior synonym of
P. nitidus
(see also
Hiller
et al.
2004
). Indeed, in the present Panamanian material, the number of spinules on the ventral surface of the P2–P4 propodi varied from four to six: two to four medially aligned spinules and two spinules on the distal corner, near the propodo-dactylar articulation. The uniform pale orange-brown colouration of the Panamanian specimens of
P. nitidus
(
Figs. 80
,
81
) corresponds well to that of the
Galápagos
specimens in
Hickman & Zimmerman (2000)
.
Genus
Porcellana
Lamarck, 1801