Stratiolibinia bellicosa ( Oliveira, 1944 ) Oliveira, 1944

S, M A R C O S Tava R E & Santana, William, 2011, A new genus for Libinia rostrata Bell, 1835, with comments on the validity of Libinia bellicosa Oliveira, 1944 (Crustacea, Brachyura, Majoidea, Epialtidae), Zootaxa 3057, pp. 61-68 : 64-67

Stratiolibinia bellicosa ( Oliveira, 1944) gen. nov., new combination

( Figs 1A–B ; 2A, C; 3A, C; 4A)

Libinia rostrata – Rathbun 1925: 330; Castaño & Campos 2003: 267. [not Libinia rostrata Bell, 1835 ]

Libinia rostrata var. bellicosa Oliveira, 1944: 87 .

Libinia rostrata bellicosa – Holthuis 1959: 189.

Libinia rostrata var. bellicosa – Garth 1958: 329, 331; Hendrickx 1999: 133.

Libinia bellicosa – Holthuis 1959: 188; Guinot-Dumortier 1960: 178; Fausto Filho 1966: 33; Coelho 1971a: 140; 1971b: table 1 [page not numbered]; Coelho & Ramos 1972: 213; Melo et al. 1989: 7; Melo 1996: 259; Coelho et al. 2008: 17 ; Takeda 1983: 136; Boschi 2000: 90 [table]; Silva et al. 2001: 87; Silva et al. 2002: 102; Viana et al. 2003: 12.

Material examined. Panama, Toro Point, Smithsonian Biological Survey, Meek & Hidelbrand coll., 05.ii.1912: 1 female ( USNM 56536). Brazil: Ceará, Fortaleza, Praia do Mucuipe, A. Carvalho coll., 1945: 1 male, 2 young females ( MNRJ 4710). Rio Grande do Norte, nearby Porto do Mangue, mouth of Rio das Conchas, stn 23, between 05°02.078’S – 36°46.028’W and 05°01.407’S – 36°46.073’W, M. Tavares coll., 24.xi.2009, 3– 6m: 1 male ( MZUSP 22536). Espírito Santo, Itaúnas, P. H. L. Van Der Vem coll., ii.2001: 1 ovigerous female ( MZUSP 20287); 1 male ( MZUSP 20288); 1 male ( MZUSP 20289). Espírito Santo, Piúma, 20°50.578’S – 40°28.253’W, A. Jório coll., 28.iii.2010: 1 ovigerous female ( MZUSP 24340). Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Pinheiro, iv. 1943: holotype female, cl 72.9mm, cw 63.7mm ( MZUSP 8581). Locality unknown: 1 female ( MZUSP 24341).

Comparative material. Stratiolibinia rostrata ( Bell, 1835) gen. nov., comb. nov.: Peru, Paita, W. L. Schmitt coll., x.1926: neotype male, cl 58mm, cw 47mm ( USNM 100916). Peru, Paita, W. L. Schmitt coll., x.1926: 1 male, 1 female ( USNM 70999).

Libinia dubia H. Milne Edwards, 1934 : U.S. A, Massachusetts, Woods Hole: 1 female ( USNM 72928). Virginia, Tangier Island, C. W. Shoes coll., 9.ix.1921, on oyster rock: 1 male ( USNM 55477).

Libinia emarginata Leach, 1815 : U.S.A., Connecticut, New Haven, Savin Rock: 1 male, 1 female (USNM not numbered).

Libinia erinacea ( A. Milne-Edwards, 1879) : U.S.A., Louisiana: 1 female (USNM 256624).

Libinia ferreirae Brito Capello, 1871 : Brazil, Sergipe, Pirambu, Cetesb coll., 12.ii.1985: 2 females (MZUSP 6618). Espírito Santo, Itaúnas, P. H. L. Van Der Ven coll., ii.2001: 1 male (MZUSP 20286); 1 ovigerous female (MZUSP 20285). Rio de Janeiro, Macaé, E. Garbe coll., i.1912, M.J. Rathbun det.: 1 male (MZUSP 379); 1 female (USNM 47835). Paraná, Shangrilá, R. Ennei coll., 13.xii.1998: 1 male (MZUSP 12964). Rio Grande do Sul, Projeto GEDIP, stn 1917, 29.x.1972: 2 males (MZUSP 14540).

Libinia mexicana Rathbun, 1892 : Mexico, San Felipe, Gulf of California, 6–15.v.1933: 1 male, 1 female (USNM 67720).

Libinia rhomboidea Streets, 1870 : Cuba, N.H. Bishop coll.: 1 male (USNM 53050).

Libinia setosa Lockington, 1877 : Mexico, Lower California, Playa Maria Bay, A. W. Anthony coll., 24.viii.1896: 1 male (USNM not numbered).

Libinia spinosa H. Milne Edwards, 1834 : Brazil, Macaé, near Santana Archipelago, PITA stn 12 III: 1 male, 1 female (MZUSP 20271). Rio de Janeiro, Macaé, Cabiunas, 24–25.iv.1993: 2 males (MZUSP 20282). São Paulo, Santos, Baía de Santos, Instituto de Pesca coll., vii. 1965: 1 male (MZUSP 2068). São Paulo, Ilha de Alcatrazes, Instituto de Pesca coll., v.1964: 2 males, 2 young females (MZUSP 1876). Rio Grande do Sul, Projeto GEDIP, st. 1925, 30.x.1972: 1 male (MZUSP 4356). Argentina, Provincia Buenos Aires, Bahia Union to Bahia Anegada, “La Uruguay ”, ii.1920: 1 ovigerous female (USNM 92490).

Remarks. Until now no individuals of L. rostrata and L. bellicosa had been directly compared to one another. All previous authors relied only on the available descriptions and figures, in part because L. rostrata was described from a single male from the Eastern Pacific ( Peru), which was subsequently lost, and also to the fact that the species was not collected again until 91 years later by W. Schmitt in October 1926 in Paita, Peru, and not redescribed and illustrated until 123 years after Bell (1835) by Garth (1958). Rathbun (1925: 330) compared one adult female from the Atlantic coast of Panamá and one adult male from Brazil with Bell’s (1835) description and concluded that these Atlantic specimens were conspecific with the Eastern Pacific L. rostrata . Oliveira (1944) compared an adult female from Rio de Janeiro with Bell’s brief description and his simple illustration of L. rostrata , as well as Rathbun’s notes on the Brazilian individual, and decided to consider the Atlantic specimens as a separate taxon, L.rostrata var. bellicosa . Garth (1958) studied two males and one female of the Pacific form collected by W. Schmitt in Peru, and designated the male USNM 100916 as the neotype for L. rostrata . Based on the examination of the Peruvian specimens only, and “in view of the discontinuity of habitat” ( Garth 1958: 331), he referred the Pacific and the Atlantic forms to two separate species, L. rostrata and L. bellicosa , respectively, contrary to Rathbun (1925). Holthuis (1959) and Guinot-Dumortier (1960) compared males and females from Suriname and French Guiana, respectively, with the existing descriptions and illustrations of both the Pacific and the Atlantic forms ( Bell 1835; Rathbun 1925, Oliveira 1944; Garth 1958) and considered that Oliveira (1944) was correct in erecting a new species for the Atlantic population.

Among the differential characters between L. rostrata and L. bellicosa provided by Oliveira (1944: 88–89, plate 2, fig. 4) was a distinct “crater-like” tubercle (actually a double tubercle) behind the cardiac spine. This double tubercle (as a “crater-like” tubercle) had already been noted by Rathbun (1925: 330),) in a Brazil specimen in the Natural History Museum in Philadelphia identified by her as L. rostrata . Holthuis (1959) also found the double tubercle in the Suriname males and females. This tubercle was not mentioned by Guinot-Dumortier (1960) in the French Guiana individuals. Holthuis (1959) and Guinot-Dumortier (1960) mentioned that in both the Suriname and French Guiana specimens, the distal end of the G1 mesial half is more anteriorly produced than in the Peru material figured by Garth (1958: plate T, fig, 6). Our comparisons of two males and one female from Peru with four males and seven females from Brazil revealed that S. rostrata comb. nov. and S. bellicosa comb. nov., can be distinguished by S. bellicosa possessing a double tubercle behind the cardiac spine ( Fig. 4A ). This distinct tubercle is absent in all examined specimens of S. rostrata ( Fig. 4B ). Both species can be also separated by the form of the distal end of G1, whose mesial lobe in S. bellicosa ( Fig. 2A ) is long, acute, and upturned, whereas in S. rostrata , the same lobe is distinctly short, blunt, and directed laterally ( Fig. 2B ). All the other supposed differential characters between S. rostrata and S. bellicosa mentioned by Oliveira (1944) are just variations: (i) the length and thickness of the cheliped and the spination of the P1 merus vary with age and sex; (ii) the spine behind the gastric spine is not present in some of the Atlantic representatives (also noted by Holthuis 1959); and (iii) the acuteness of the preocular spine varies between individuals.

Stratiolibinia bellicosa is an Atlantic species presently known from the Atlantic coasts of Panamá, Colombia, Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil (Pará, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and Paraná) at depths of 10– 30 m. Its Eastern Pacific counterpart, S. rostrata , is so far known from Sinaloa ( Mexico) and Paita ( Peru), between 4–100 m ( Rathbun1910; Garth 1958; Hendrickx 1999; Castaño & Campos 2003).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A – D, Ventral view of thoracic sternum (abdomen in place in B and D, removed in A and C). A, B, Stratiolibinia bellicosa (Oliveira, 1944) gen. nov., comb. nov., male cl 62 mm, cw 52 mm (MZUSP 22536). C, D, Libinia spinosa H. Milne Edwards, 1834, male cl 62 mm, cw 53 mm (MZUSP 20271). Note in D, lateral swellings (arrows) at level of thoracic sternites VI – VII and abdominal somites 5 and 4 deeply concave laterally. Scale bars: A – D, 15 mm.

FIGURE 4. A – B, Habitus, dorsal view. A, Stratiolibinia bellicosa (Oliveira, 1944) gen. nov., comb. nov., holotype female cl 72.9 mm, cw 63.7 mm (MZUSP 8581). B, Stratiolibinia rostrata (Bell, 1835) gen. nov., comb. nov., male cl 55 mm, cw 48 mm (USNM 70999). C, Libinia spinosa H. Milne Edwards, 1834, male cl 62 mm, cw 53 mm (MZUSP 20271). D, Libinia ferreirae Brito-Capello, 1871, male cl 56 mm, cw 50 mm (MZUSP 379). Note in A, B P 1 merus armed with spines and tubercles (merus unarmed in C, D), the very broad rostrum (distinctly smaller, merely notched distally in C, D), in A, only distinct double tubercle behind cardiac spine (arrow). Scale bars: A, 38 mm; B, 28 mm; C – D, 30 mm.

FIGURE 2. A – D, Abdominal view of first male gonopod. A, C, Stratiolibinia bellicosa (Oliveira, 1944) gen. nov., comb. nov., male cl 62 mm, cw 52 mm (MZUSP 22536). B, Stratiolibinia rostrata (Bell, 1835) gen. nov., comb. nov., male cl 55 mm, cw 48 mm (USNM 70999). D, Libinia spinosa H. Milne Edwards, 1834, male cl 62 mm, cw 53 mm (MZUSP 20271). Note G 1 keel (k) in A – C (absent in D) and long, acute, upturned mesial lobe (ml) in A (lobe distinctly shorter, blunt, directed laterally in B). Scale bars: A, D, 0.50 mm; B, C, 0.33 mm.