Goneplax, Castro, 2007

Castro, Peter, 2007, A reappraisal of the family Goneplacidae MacLeay, 1838 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura) and revision of the subfamily Goneplacinae, with the description of 10 new genera and 18 new species, Zoosystema 29 (4), pp. 609-774 : 690-692

Goneplax clevai Guinot & Castro, 2007

Goneplax new species – Ng & Manuel-Santos 2007: 47, figs 6A, 7 [ South Africa].

Goneplax clevai Guinot & Castro, 2007: 19 [synonymy, references], figs 1-3, 4A [ Ivory Coast, D. R. Congo, Angola, Namibia, South Africa].

[ Carcinoplax ] barnardi – Guinot 1989: 314 [in list] fig. 45 (part).

TYPE MATERIAL. — ♂ holotype, cl 24 mm, cw 40 mm, Angola, 6°18’S, 11°34’E, 140-150 m, 17-21.IX.1948 ( IRSNB 13599). Paratypes: 1 ♂ ( IRSNB 13597), 1 ♂ ( MNHN-B 19584), 1 ♂ ( IRSNB 13602), 5 ♂♂ ( IRSNB 13601), 1 pre-adult ( IRSNB 13597), Angola.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — South AFrica. Algoa Bay, H. A. Spencer coll., 4 ♂♂ ( BMNH 1896.5.19.5.8). — Port Elizabeth, H. A. Spencer coll., 1 ♂ ( BMNH 1891.10.22.2). — Port Elizabeth, local trawlers, 1.XII.2003, 1 ♂ ( ZRC 2004.0700).

26 km northeast of Bird I., 73 m, Natal Government Museum leg., 1 ♂ ( BMNH 1917.619.29) (also see material examined in Guinot & Castro 2007).

TYPE LOCALITY. — Off northern coast of Angola, 140- 150 m.

DISTRIBUTION. — From Western Atlantic coast of Ivory Coast to the Indian Ocean coast off KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Depth: approximately 10- 700 m.

REMARKS

Goneplax clevai , which is restricted to the southern Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, was long confused with G. rhomboides . The two species are sympatric along the coast of West Africa but the extent of their overlap remains unknown because many African records of G. rhomboides in the literature are most probably from misidentified specimens.

Goneplax clevai is best distinguished from G. rhomboides and G. barnardi n. comb. by the length of its eye peduncles, which is somewhat intermediate between its two congeners: 0.8 of the front width (see Guinot 1989: fig 45, as [ Carcinoplax ] barnardi ; Guinot & Castro 2007: fig. 4A), not as long as in G. rhomboides (where it is as long or slightly longer than the front width; see Fig. 27A ; Guinot & Castro: fig. 4B) but much longer than that of G. barnardi n. comb. (0.4 of the length of the front; see Fig. 27B ). There is some variation in the shape of the anterolateral borders and the outer orbital and anterolateral teeth among specimens of G. rhomboides so that these characters are not always reliable for differentiating between the two species (see Guinot & Castro 2007). The anterolateral borders of G. clevai are straight but rounded in G. barnardi n. comb. There are also differences in the morphologies of the front, chelipeds, overall shape of the carapace, and colour between the three species (see Guinot & Castro 2007).

Figures

FIG. 27. — A, Goneplax rhomboides (Linnaeus,1758), ♂, cl 21.6 mm, cw 34.7 mm, Shoalstone Point, Brixham, Devon,UK, D. George et al. coll., 18 m (BMNH 1981.539); B, Goneplax barnardi (Capart, 1951) n. comb., ♂, cl 14.1 mm, cw 25.1 mm, off northern coast of Angola, Campagne ZAIANGO-BIOL 2, stn CP 09, 360-367 m (MNHN-B 27933).