Munida tenella Benedict, 1902

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 : 35-36

Munida tenella Benedict, 1902

Munida tenella Benedict, 1902: 274 , fig. 20. — Hendrickx 1993b: 310 (table); 1995: 559 (text fig.); 2000: 186, fig. 14. — Hendrickx & Harvey 1999: 375 (list). — Baba 2005: 276 (list). — Fierro et al. 2008: 6 (list). — Baba et al. 2008: 125 (list).

Material examined. TALUD XIV St. 1 (28°15'38"N, 111°58'33"W), 7 Apr 2011, 23 males (CL 9.4–22.4 mm; CLr 14.3–29.7 mm), 29 females (CL 8.1–21.6 mm; CLr 12.2–29.1 mm), 1 ovig. female (CL 18.0 mm; CLr 23.4 mm), and 9 juv. (not measured), 208–212 m, benthic dredge (EMU-8940). Same station, 1 male (CL 11.7 mm; CLr 18.9 mm), and 3 females (CL 14.2–19.4 mm; CLr largest female, 29.1 mm) (EMU-8943). St. 14 (28°35’32”N, 112° 27’53”W), 8 Apr 2011, 6 males (CL 12.7–19.8 mm; CLr 19.6–26.2 mm), 7 females (CL 12.6–15.1 mm; CLr 19.9–24.5 mm), and 1 ovig. female (CL 17.7 mm; CLr 27.1 mm), 305–316 m, benthic dredge (EMU-8941). St. 20 (28°46'27"N, 112°45'24"W), 9 Apr 2011, 1 juv. (damaged, not catalogued), 410–414 m, benthic sledge. St. 30 (28°32'57"N, 112°59'26"W), 11 Apr 2011, 2 males (CL 9.9–25.0 mm; CLr 16.2–34.2 mm), and 2 females (CL 10.5–12.0 mm; largest female CLr 18.7 mm) 270–309 m, benthic sledge (EMU-8942).

Color. Carapace and pereiopods bright red.

Size and fecundity. The type material obviously corresponds to small specimens (18 mm total length, “from the front to the end of the telson” [sic]; Benedict, 1902: 275; about 12 mm of maximum CLr, based on illustration by Benedict 1902). The large series of specimens reported by Hendrickx (2000) from 12 stations throughout the northern and central Gulf of California included specimens of up to 16.0 mm CLr. Among the TALUD XIV material examined, the largest male is 34.2 mm CLr and the largest female 29.1 mm CLr.

In total 85 specimens were collected, and only two ovigerous individuals of about the same size (CL 17.7 and 18.0 mm) were found among the 41 females, carrying over 1000 eggs each. Egg size: 0.37–0.44 mm (based on 20 eggs of largest female).

Ecology. Munida tenella was captured in depths of 208–414 m (Table 1), much deeper than previously known (70–130 m) ( Hendrickx 2000). The series of large specimens (CLr> 20.0 mm) captured during the TALUD cruises in depth of 208–414 m contrasts with the series of much smaller specimens (CLr <16 mm) reported by Hendrickx (2000) between 27 and 112 m depth. This might indicate that larger specimens occur in deeper water.

Epibenthic values of temperature and dissolved oxygen associated with the capture of M. tenella were 11.4–13.7 °C and 0.41–2.77 ml O2/l, respectively (Table 1). The largest catch corresponds to the 0.41 ml O2/l value.