Aqaballianassa brevirostris ( Sakai, 2002 )

Poore, Gary C. B., 2023, New records, one new genus and 21 new species of Callianassidae (Crustacea, Axiidea) from the Indo-West Pacific, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 82, pp. 167-255 : 170

Aqaballianassa brevirostris ( Sakai, 2002)

Callianassa brevirostris Sakai, 2002: 514–518 , figs 30, 31. Trypaea brevirostris .— Sakai, 2011: 394. Aqaballianassa brevirostris .— Poore et al., 2019: 91, 136, 142.—

Robles et al., 2020: figs 1, 3, 6.—Dworschak and Anker, 2022: 114: fig.

1c (colour photograph).

Material examined. Thailand, Andaman Sea , off Phuket, 59 m, 07° 30' N, 98° 29' E (BIOSHELF stn I2), PMBC 15710 (female, 2.5 mm); 21 m, 07° 52' N, 98° 48' E (BIOSHELF stn PB5 ), PMBC 15713 (male, 2.0 mm) .

Diagnosis. Major cheliped merus 1.7 times as long as wide, lower margin with distally directed proximal spine; propodus palm as long as carpus, as long as wide, with oblique gape (narrower than base of each finger), without tooth; fixed finger 0.65 times as long as palm, without tooth on cutting edge. Dactylus longer than fixed finger. Uropod endopod oval, 1.2 times as long as greatest width; exopod anterior margin 1.5 times greatest width. Telson 1.1 times as long as wide, tapering to convex posterior margin (not as figured by Sakai, 2002).

Distribution. Andaman, Sunda Shelf ( Thailand, Singapore, [type locality: Andaman Sea]); 0– 73 m.

Remarks. Sakai (2002) reported males and females. The female and male major chelipeds (Sakai’s fig. 31C, D) are, as in hermaphroditic A. aqabaensis , not highly sexually dimorphic, if the illustrated “detached” cheliped is in fact from a male. The paratype male was reported to have a 2-articled pleopod 1; the smaller juvenile male reported here lacks pleopods 1 and 2.

Sakai (2011) placed the species in Trypaea without explanation. The branchiostegal sclerite is smaller than illustrated by Sakai (2002) but confirms the present generic placement.