Neocallichirus Sakai, 1988

Poore, Gary C. B., Dworschak, Peter C., Robles, Rafael, Mantelatto, Fernando L. & Felder, Darryl L., 2019, A new classification of Callianassidae and related families (Crustacea: Decapoda: Axiidea) derived from a molecular phylogeny with morphological support, Memoirs of Museum Victoria (Mem. Mus. Vic.) 78, pp. 73-146 : 114

Neocallichirus Sakai, 1988

Neocallichirus Sakai, 1988: 61–62 .— Manning and Felder, 1991: 779–780.— Poore, 1994: 102.— Sakai, 1999a: 84–86.— Sakai, 2000: 92.— Davie, 2002: 461.— Poore, 2004: 184.— Sakai, 2005b: 160– 162.— Sakai, 2011: 451–452.— Hyžný and Karasawa, 2012: 60–65 .

Sergio Manning and Lemaitre, 1994: 40 .— Sakai, 2011: 467–468 (type species, Callianassa guassutinga Rodrigues, 1971, by original designation).— Hyžný and Karasawa, 2012: 61–62.

Callichiropsis Sakai, 2010: 1453 (type species, Callichiropsis spiridonovi Sakai, 2010 , by original designation and monotypy) syn. nov.

Type species. Neocallichirus horneri Sakai, 1988 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Anterior branchiostegal lobe sclerotised, well produced anteriorly beyond junction with oblique branchiostegal ridge with which it articulates by means of a virtual condyle. Rostrum obsolete or obtusely triangular, flat, not reaching cornea; anterolateral spines absent (rarely with small spines). Pleomere 1 tergite undivided or with weak transverse step. Maxilliped 3 ischium and merus linear; propodus about as wide as long, free distal margin transverse or nearly so. Male major cheliped merus lower margin convex or blade like, especially proximally, with small denticles. Male minor cheliped palm half or more width of major cheliped palm, carpus as long as or shorter than palm, fingers as long as or longer than palm. Pereopod 3 propodus subpentagonal, with strong broadly rounded proximal lobe on lower margin, lower margin straight-concave. Pereopod 4 subchelate. Male pleopod 1 consisting of 2 articles, article 2 ovoid, with shallow apical notch between rounded subdistal lobe and curved acute apex. Male pleopod 2 appendix interna reduced to obsolete distomesial lobe, or rarely free, articulating, distal on mesial endopod margin, or absent. Pleopods 3–5 appendices internae barely emerging from endopod margin. Uropodal endopod with straight or slightly convex anterior margin ending in rounded angle, transverse or near-transverse distal margin continuous with curved posteriormargin,aswideorwiderthanlong. Telson converging to about half basal width from near anterior width over most of length to rounded posterolateral corners, posterior margin straight or with slight medial lobe.

Remarks. Neocallichirus is the largest callichirid genus. The uropodal endopod has a straight or slightly convex anterior margin ending in a rounded angle and continuous distal and posterior margins. The endopod is often wider than long. The telson tapers regularly to about half its width. Sakai (2011) provided a key to 28 species, including N. mucronatus , herein removed to Mucrollichirus gen. nov., and N. karumba (= N. kempi ), herein removed to Karumballichirus gen. nov. Sakai (1999a, 2005b) included Sergio in the synonymy of Neocallichirus , but in 2011 he redefined the former and placed some of its originally included species in a re-diagnosed genus. He differentiated Sergio with a notched apex on the male pleopod 1 (adult form) from Neocallichirus with only a slight distal indentation (juvenile form), despite most species of Neocallichirus being described as having the adult form. The molecular analysis (Robles et al., in press) placed three species of “ Sergio ” within the Neocallichirus clade, a result anticipated by Sepahvand et al. (2018).

Sakai (2010) differentiated a new genus Callichiropsis from Lepidophthalmus on the basis of a different pereopod 3 and from Podocallichirus on the shape of the telson. We treat Podocallichirus as a synonym of Lepidophthalmus (see above). He did not compare Callichiropsis spiridonovi Sakai, 2010 , with Neocallichirus , from which it does not differ. Callichiropsis is here synonymised with Neocallichirus .