Panopeus herbstii H. Milne Edwards, 1834

Panopeus herbstii H. Milne Edwards, 1834: 403 .

Material examined. None.

Distribution. Western Atlantic—USA (Massachusetts to Florida), Gulf of Mexico, Antilles, Caribbean Sea, north of South America, and Brazil (Paraíba, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina) (Rathbun 1930; Coelho & Ramos 1972; Powers 1977; Williams 1983, 1984).

Remarks. Previous records on the coast of São Paulo include “Piassaguera, Santos” as forma obesa (Rathbun 1930), probably a spelling mistake of Piaçaguera, a locality close to Cubatão. Initially, Panopeus herbstii was recognized as four forms, being herbstii the typical form; another occurrence on the Brazilian coast included forma crassa, not the typical one (Rathbun 1930). Posteriorly, these taxa were elevated to full species status and only P. lacustris and P. austrobesus, which included crassa and obesa varieties, occur in Brazil (Williams 1983). It seems that the relationship among species attributed to the genus Panopeus is unclear (Thoma et al. 2014). Thus, we conjecture that the occurrence of this species in São Paulo, or even in Brazil, was confused with the other forms or varieties.