Pagurixus maorus ( Nobili, 1906 )

Komai, Tomoyuki, Rahayu, Dwi Listyo & Fujita, Yoshihisa, 2021, Hermit crabs of the family Paguridae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura) from Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Indian Ocean Territory of Australia, with descriptions of three new species and reappraisal of the genus Kumepagurus Komai & Osawa, 2012, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 69, pp. 378-402 : 397

Pagurixus maorus ( Nobili, 1906)

( Fig. 8D )

Eupagurus maorus Nobili, 1906: 259 ; 1907: 371, pl. 1 fig. 9.

Pagurixus maorus – McLaughlin & Haig, 1984: 127, fig. 2; Komai & Asakura, 1995: 347, figs. 4–6; Komai & Osawa, 2006: 17 , figs. 4–7, 44A, 47; Komai, 2010: 1313 ; Komai & Rahayu, 2013: 135 ; Arima, 2014: 187, unnumbered figs.

? Pagurixus cf. maorus – Morgan, 1992: 165.

Material examined. COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS. ZRC 2021.0638 , 2 females (sl 2.9, 3.9 mm; larger one photo), CK19, S of Direction Island , 12°05.503′S, 96°52.904′E, 6.9 m, 22 March 2011 ; QM W29569, 1 female (sl 2.2 mm), CK23, off North Point , 12°07.670′S, 96°51.813′E, 13.1 m, 23 March 2011 .

Distribution. Widely distributed in the West Pacific: Japan (Ryukyu Islands), the Philippines, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia; coral reef, intertidal to 20 m deep ( McLaughlin & Haig, 1984; Komai & Asakura, 1995; Komai & Osawa, 2006; Komai, 2010; Komai & Rahayu, 2013; Poupin et al., 2013).

Remarks. The present specimens agree well with the descriptions of Pagurixus maorus by McLaughlin & Haig (1984), Komai & Asakura (1995), and Komai & Osawa (2006), and confirm the occurrence of this species in Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Morgan (1992) recorded Pagurixus cf. maorus from Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands, but noted that the dactyli of pereopods 2 and 3 were shorter than the propodi, and the male right cheliped was much less elongate than that illustrated for P. maorus by McLaughlin & Haig (1984). The real identity of the specimens reported by Morgan (1992) needs to be verified.

Figures

Fig. 8. Habitus in dorsal view, showing living colouration. A, Micropagurus polynesiensis (Nobili, 1905), ZRC 2021.0632, male (sl 1.7 mm); B, Pagurixus carinimanus Komai & Osawa, 2006, ZRC 2021.0635, male (sl 2.0 mm); C, Pagurixus haigae Komai & Osawa, 2007, ZRC 2021.0647, male (sl 1.4 mm); D, Pagurixus maorus (Nobili, 1906), ZRC 2021.0638, female (sl 3.9 mm). Photographs by LKCNHM.