Cryptodromia hilgendorfi De Man, 1888

Shaga, I Bevin, Priya, K, Ramar, Selvakumar, Srinidhi, S, Mohan, G Chandra, Ranganathan, Sukanya, Moulvi, S M M & Mani, Bhuvaneswari, 2023, A Small Collection of Subtidal Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) from the Palau Islands Collected by Dredging, Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science. Series A, Zoology 49 (1), pp. 7-42 : 8

Cryptodromia hilgendorfi De Man, 1888

Material examined. Inside of Gesodokkuru Reef , off Arumonogui, Babelthuap I., Palau Is., ca. 20 m in depth, dredged, dead coral and sand; 1 Ə (cb 4.5×cl 4.4 mm), NSMT-Cr 30952; July 14, 1980; K. Baba leg.

Remarks. This specimen is small, but agrees with the line drawings by De Man (1888: pl. 18 fig. 3), Alcock (1901: pl. 3 fig. 11), Campbell and Stephenson (1970: fig. 3A) and Lewinsohn (1977: fig. 2a), with the photographs by Takeda (1973: pl. 1 fig. A) and McLay (1993: fig. 18d), and also with the taxonomic notes by Ihle (1913). Especially, the recent description and taxonomic discussion by McLay (1993) are elaborate.

The most remarkable character of this species is the armature of the carapace margin; the anterolateral margin is armed with a large rightangled tooth rather close to the external orbital angle, which makes a distinct gap at the tooth, and the main anterolateral margin behind the tooth is almost straight, only weakly convergent, and followed by a blunt epibranchial tooth behind the shallow but distinct depression.

Distribution. Widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific from the Red Sea eastwards to the Marquesas Islands and northwards to the Philippines, 1–105 m in depth. Mclay (2001) recorded many specimens from the Marquesas Islands in the Polynesia, and Balss (1938) and Takeda (1973) recorded this species from the Gilbert and Palau Islands in the Micronesia, respectively.