Argis californiensis (Rathbun, 1902)

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 108

Argis californiensis (Rathbun, 1902)

( Fig. 27A)

Nectocrangon californiensis Rathbun 1902a: 24 ; 1904:140, figs. 80, 81. — Schmitt 1921: 102. — Zarenkov 1965: 1764.

Argis californiensis . — Wicksten 1976: 57; 1977a: 964, fig.1; 1980c: 363;: 313. — Word & Charwat 1976: 71.

Diagnosis. True rostrum absent, but rostral tooth adjacent to frontal margin. Carapace with 2 dorsal teeth posterior to rostral tooth, branchiostegal, pterygostomian teeth, hepatic tooth on each side. Eye small, partly concealed by hood formed by fusion of rostral, postorbital, antennal teeth. Antennular peduncle shorter than scaphocerite, stylocerite short. Scaphocerite with lateral tooth only slightly exceeding blade. Third maxilliped with distal segment flattened, with exopod. Pereopod 1 with dactylus closing obliquely against propodus. Pereopod 2 slender, chelate. Pereopod 3 slender with acute dactylus. Pereopods 4, 5 stout, dactyls flattened. Abdominal somites 1, 2 not carinated, somites 3, 4 feebly carinated, somite 5 strongly carinated, somite 6 with 2 carinae each ending in sharp tooth. Abdominal pleura 1–4 rounded, fifth pleuron pointed. Telson overreaching uropods, with 3 pairs dorsolateral spines, acute apex. Female with more inflated carapace and more elevated eye tubercle than male. Total length to 62 mm.

Color in life. Not reported.

Habitat and depth. Sand, rocks and shell, 20–259 m.

Range. Off Santa Rosa I., California to off Punta Banda, Baja California. Type locality off Santa Catalina I. , California .

Remarks. Like other species of Argis , A. californiensis probably is a burrower that uses its flattened appendages to dig into the sand. These appendages are not "natatorial", as described by Schmitt (1921). The eyes remain above the surface of the sand, as is the case in many crangonids.

Although most records of this species come from the islands off southern California, A. californiensis also has been collected off Port Hueneme and San Diego. Its distribution may be governed by the availability of the coarse shelly sand in which it lives. A record of the species (as Nectocrangon californiensis ) southwest of the Columbia River, Oregon ( McCauley1972) probably is due to a misidentification of another species of Argis .