Halicarcinus quoyi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853 )

Poore, Gary C. B., Guinot, Danièle, Komai, Tomoyuki & Naruse, Tohru, 2016, Reappraisal of species attributed to Halicarcinus White, 1846 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Hymenosomatidae) with diagnosis of four new genera and one new species from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 4093 (4), pp. 480-514 : 489-490

Halicarcinus quoyi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853)

( Fig. 1 e, f)

Elamene [sic] quoyi H. Milne Edwards, 1853: 223 , pl. 11 fig. 3.

Halicarcinus Huttoni Filhol, 1885b: 46 .

Halicarcinus planatus— Richardson 1949a: 68, fig. 48.

Halicarcinus innominata Richardson, 1949b: 130 [nomen nudum].

Halicarcinus innominatus— Melrose 1975: 26 –34, figs 5–11, pl. 1 (for extensive synonymy). — McLay 1988: 362 –365, fig. 77. — Poore 2004: 394, fig. 120c. — Webber 2010: 185, 186, 226.

Material examined. Lectotype of Elamena quoyi H. Milne Edwards, 1853 , herein selected. Nouvelle-Zélande ( New Zealand; mislabelled Nouvelle-Calédonie), MNHN-2000-667 (B667), (male, 6.4 mm, dry). Paralectotype fragments of Elamena quoyi . Same locality, MNHN-2000-32609 (B32609), (sex unknown, dry).

Syntype of Halicarcinus huttoni Filhol, 1885 . New Zealand, Port Chambers, MNHN IU-2000-32613 (B32613), (female).

Other material. New Zealand, Otago coast, NMV J7372 (ovigerous female, 12.1 mm; 1 male); NMV J7036 (males and females).

Distribution. New Zealand except subantarctic islands; introduced to Tasmania, Australia ( Poore 2004).

Remarks. The two dry specimens of the type series of Elamena quoyi H. Milne Edwards, 1853 , were examined and a lectotype is selected. H. Milne Edwards’ schematic drawing showed a low and unilobate-like rostrum, which lead Tesch (1918) and Melrose (1975) to erroneously consider this poorly known species a junior synonym of Halicarcinus pubescens ( Dana, 1851) (now placed in Neohymenicus Lucas, 1980 ). Melrose also included it as a possible synonym of H. innominatus . The lectotype of E. quoyi (fig. 1e) actually has a short but sharp rostrum and lateral pseudorostral lobes. As Melrose (1975: 26) noted, Halicarcinus innominata Richardson, 1949 , was erected without designation of types or material of any kind or of a type locality (contravening ICZN Article 61). She corrected the spelling of the species name, nominated a type locality but was unable to find ‘specimens identified by Richardson … in the Dominion Museum or Victoria University of Wellington Zoology Department Collections’. Richardson also failed to designate a holotype and although the name has been widely used in New Zealand the species remains a nomen nudum. It is here treated as conspecific with H. quoyi .

Melrose (1975) included H. huttoni in the synonymy of both H. ovatus and H. innominatus (now H. quoyi ). Its type locality in New Zealand and overall morphology lead to the conclusion that it is a synonym of the latter, a New Zealand endemic rather than the former, an Australian endemic.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Halicarcinus cookii (Filhol, 1885): a – c, lectotype of Hymenicus cookii Filhol, 1885, MNHN IU- 2014 - 7143 (B 32572), (female, 6.1 mm). Halicarcinus planatus (Fabricius, 1775): d, holotype of Elamena mexicana (H. Milne Edwards, 1853), MNHN IU- 2000 - 655 (B 655), (male, 7.3 mm). Halicarcinus quoyi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853): e, lectotype of Elamena quoyi H. Milne Edwards, 1853, MNHN- 2000 - 667 (B 667), (male without rostrum, 6.4 mm); f, paralectotype, MNHN- 2000 - 32609 (B 32609), (sex unknown, dry fragments).