Melocarcinus meekei ( Pretzmann, 1968 )

Magalhães, Célio, Campos, Martha R. & Türkay, Michael, 2013, Freshwater crabs from eastern Panamá: a new species of Potamocarcinus H. Milne Edwards, 1853, and new records of two little-known species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Pseudothelphusidae, Trichodactylidae), Zootaxa 3702 (4), pp. 348-356 : 354

Melocarcinus meekei ( Pretzmann, 1968)

Trichodactylus (Valdivia) meekei Pretzmann, 1968 a: 2 .— Bott 1969: 40.— Rodríguez 1992: 100.

Valdivia (Valdivia) meekei .— Pretzmann, 1968b: 71.

Valdivia (Forsteria) meekei .—Pretzmann 1983: 325, pl. 6, figs. 14, 15, pl. 7, fig. 16 [part., nec pl. 7, fig. 17; = Forsteria venezuelensis Rathbun 1905 ]

Melocarcinus meekei .— Magalhães & Türkay 1996a: 67, 87, figs. 34, 41, 42.— Magalhães & Türkay 1996b: 100, figs. 7, 8, 49.—Ng et al. 2008: 187 [in list].

Material. Panamá, Darién Province, 1 male (cw 46.9, cl 41.9), USNM 1180978, Púcuro river, approximately 1000 m upstream from Tuira river, 12.Feb.1985, R.W. Bouchard leg.

Distribution. The only records available for the species are those of the type material from Yape river, a tributary of the Tuira river, and one female from Río Chucunaque ( Magalhães & Türkay 1996b). The present record is also for Tuira river basin, a little eastward from the type locality ( Fig. 3 ). This is the only trichodactylid distributed in a river basin that drains into the Pacific.

Remarks. The morphological examination of the present specimen did not show any noticeable differences in the carapace and gonopod features from the specimens described and illustrated by Magalhães & Türkay (1996b).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Geographic distribution of Melocarcinus meekei (Pretzmann, 1968) (•), Potamocarcinus darienensis sp. n. (˔), and Spirocarcinus garthi (Pretzmann, 1971) (⋅) in eastern Panama, Central America.