The names of decapod and stomatopod Crustacea from Tahiti, French Polynesia, established by Anthony Curtiss in 1938 and 1944
Author
Ng, Peter K. L.
Author
Eldredge, Lucius G.
Author
Evenhuis, Neal L.
text
Zootaxa
2011
2011-11-16
3099
43
56
journal article
45981
10.5281/zenodo.206896
b4c7e4b1-cc25-42ef-91ae-a205918bf357
1175-5326
206896
Cancer barffi
Curtiss, 1938
[
tiáneé
]
Scyllarus antarcticus
Lund, 1793: 22
.
Cancer barffi
Curtiss, 1938: 164
.
The detailed description of this crayfish strongly indicates that it is the common reef slipper or mitten lobster
Parribacus antarcticus
(
Lund, 1793
) (Scyllaridae)
.
Holthuis (1985: 74)
was the first to report
Cancer barffi
as a synonym of
P. antarcticus
, although he did not explain why, and this synonymy has been followed by later workers (e.g.,
Holthuis 1991
;
Poupin 1996
;
Chan 1998
; Davie 2002). Three other species of
Parribacus
actually occur in
French Polynesia
:
P. holthuisi
Forest, 1964
,
P. scarlatinus
Holthuis, 1960
, and
P. perlatus
Holthuis, 1967
, but Curtiss’s (1938: 163–164) observations that the “outer antennae have each four joints; the fourth, or final joint has eight spines at its tip, and some pale orange hairs ….. abdomen has bumps on the middle of the upper side of the second, third and fourth sections. The fourth section has its bump less noticeable, but those on the second and third sections stick out more ….. The body is variegated above, black and pale greenish; except for the fins at the end of the tail, which are pale orange; these fins are pale orange on their underside too, but the rest of the body is, on the under side, variegated with pale orange, pale greenish, and whitish”, indicate that
C. barffi
is probably
P. antarcticus
. The armature of the fourth antennal segment is important in separating the species, with
P. antarcticus
,
P. scarlatinus
and
P. perlatus
having six lateral teeth while
P. holthuisi
only has five such teeth (
Chan 1998
). However, Curtiss obviously counted all the teeth around the antennal segment so this character is not helpful here. His observation of the median “bumps” on the abdomen is important as he observes that it is relatively high on the second and third somites. These median carinae are high in
P. antarcticus
but low in the other species (
Chan 1998
). In addition, the other species are red to orange in life, with
P. antarcticus
being the only green and black species.