Lepidopa Ortmann, 1896: 225–226

BOYKO, CHRISTOPHER B., 2002, A Worldwide Revision Of The Recent And Fossil Sand Crabs Of The Albuneidae Stimpson And Blepharipodidae, New Family (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Hippoidea), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2002 (272), pp. 1-396 : 79-80

Lepidopa Ortmann, 1896: 225–226 (part). –

Schmitt, 1921: 172 (part). – Gordon, 1938:

188–190 (part). – Garcia Mendes, 1945: 119

(part). – Efford, 1971: 60–61 (part). – Calado,

1987: 119–121 (part). – Coêlho and Calado,

1987: 41 (part). – Manning, 1988: 626–627

(part). – Calado, 1995: 125–126 (part)) (not

Lepidopa Stimpson, 1858 ).

Lepidops: Stimpson, 1860: 241 . – Miers, 1878:

331–332 (part) (not Lepidopa Stimpson, 1858 ). Paraleucolepidopa Calado, 1995: 264 . – Calado,

1996: 47. – Calado, 1997b: 59–60.

DIAGNOSIS: Carapace wider than long, anterior margin weakly toothed. Rostrum produced and rounded. Distal peduncular segment flattened, ovate. Antennular dorsal flagellum with 56–67 articles, ventral flagellum with two articles. Antennal segment I unarmed; flagellum with six to eight articles. Maxilliped II exopod without flagellum. Maxilliped III exopod without flagellum. Abdominal somite V pleura well calcified. Males with pleopods. Telson of male diamond­shaped, evenly but weakly calcified.

DISTRIBUTION: Baja California, Mexico, to Panama; Dominican Republic to Brazil.

TYPE SPECIES: Lepidopa myops Stimpson, 1860 , as the senior synonym of L. panamaensis Efford, 1971 , the type species by monotypy.

INCLUDED SPECIES: P. myops ( Stimpson, 1860) ; P. distincta ( Gomes Côrrea, 1968) .

REMARKS: Calado (1995) first introduced this generic name in her doctoral dissertation, but it must be considered unpublished from that source. It is unfortunate that she chose to subsequently publish the name in an abstract ( Calado, 1996), but it is validly pub­ lished therein. A more complete redescription of the genus was given by Calado (1997b).

This genus was described with the type and sole species of Lepidopa panamaensis ( Calado, 1996) . Direct comparison of the type specimens of that taxon and numerous specimens of L. myops showed no important differences, and the two taxa are synonymous. Lepidopa myops is therefore the type of Paraleucolepidopa as the senior synonym of L. panamaensis . To complicate matters further, none of Calado’s (1996; 1997b) defining characters for the genus Paraleucolepidopa are diagnostic for that taxon, which suggests that Paraleucolepidopa may be a synonym of Lepidopa . However, a cladistic phylogenetic analysis of the Albuneidae (Boyko and Harvey, in prep.) shows that the monophyletic clade containing L. myops and L. distincta is the sister taxon to Lepidopa and contains several synapomorphies (antennular dorsal flagellum with 56–67 articles, antennal segment I unarmed, maxilliped II exopod without flagellum, abdominal somite V pleura well calcified). As Calado’s (1996) name is the earliest available for this clade, the name Paraleucolepidopa must stand but based on an entirely different suite of characters than that given by Calado (1996, 1997b).

This genus is intermediate between Leucolepidopa and Lepidopa .