Pleuroncodes planipes Stimpson, 1860

Hendrickx, Michel E., 2012, Squat lobsters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Galatheoidea and Chirostyloidea) collected during the TALUD XIV cruise in the Gulf of California, Mexico, and rediscovery of Gastroptychus perarmatus (Haig, 1968) in the eastern Pacific, Zootaxa 3418, pp. 28-40 : 36

Pleuroncodes planipes Stimpson, 1860

Pleuroncodes planipes Stimpson, 1860: 245 . — Rathbun 1904: 166. — Schmitt 1921: 163. — Hendrickx 1993a: 7 (list); 1993b: 310 (table); 1995: 556 (text fig.). — Hendrickx and Harvey 1999: 377 (list). — Baba et al. 2008: 178 (list). — Fierro et al. 2008: 9 (list).

Material examined. TALUD XIV. St. 1 (28°15'38"N, 111°58'33"W), 7 Apr 2011, 5 males (CL 21.8–22.9 mm; CLr 26.7–30.1 mm), 1 female (CL 22.7 mm; CLr 26.9 mm), and 2 ovig. females(CL 17.5 and 18.9 mm; CLr 22.6 and 24.1 mm), benthic sledge, 208–212 m (EMU-9290a). St. 2 (28°14'31"N, 112°08'27"W), 7 Apr 2011, 1 female (CL 13.4 mm; CLr 20.1 mm), benthic sledge, 512–525 m (EMU-9290b). St. 3 (28°16'03"N, 112°17'40"W), 7 Apr 2011, 1 male (CL 14.2 mm; CLr 18.3 mm), benthic sledge, 914–925 m (EMU-9290c).

Remarks. Pleuroncodes planipes features both a pelagic and a benthic phase, making it difficult to determine its bathymetric range as specimens are often caught up in trawls hauled back to surface. Within the Gulf of California, the species is known from the east coast, north to about Tiburon Island and it is occasionally very abundant ( Hendrickx 1995). In the California Current area, it ranges from San Francisco, California, to the tip of the Baja California Peninsula, then further south to Central America. In the Gulf of California, environmental data indicate that it usually occurs close to the upper limit of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) ( Hendrickx 1985; Aurioles-Gamboa & Balart 1995).

Because the material examined could have been captured at the bottom or during return of the trawl net to surface, it is not possible to relate the epibenthic values of parameters measured at the sampling stations with the presence of P. planipes .

In addition to the references provided in the synonymy, P. monodon has been cited in many contributions dealing with its biology, ecology or fishery ( Aurioles-Gamboa & Balart 1995; Poore et al. 2011).