Eumunida pacifica Gordon, 1930

Macpherson, Enrique, Rodríguez-Flores, Paula C. & Machordom, Annie, 2020, New occurrences of squat lobsters of the genus Eumunida Smith, 1883 (Decapoda Eumunididae) in New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and Papua-New Guinea with the description of a new species, Zootaxa 4786 (4), pp. 485-496 : 490

Eumunida pacifica Gordon, 1930

Eumunida pacifica Gordon 1930: 746 , figs 6, 7 (type locality: off southern Timor , 293 m).—Baba et al. 2008: 19 (compilation, synonymies and occurrences).

Material examined. Solomon Islands. SALOMON 1 Stn CP 1833, 10°11.8’S, 161°18.7’E, 367–533 m, 05.10.2001: 1 F 3.9 mm (MNHN-IU-2014-21153) .

Papua-New Guinea. BIOPAPUA Stn DW 3719, 06°04.570’S, 147°37.141’E, 410 m, 7.10.2010: 1 M 8.3 mm, 1 F 7.5 mm (MNHN-IU- 2011-2875, IU-2014-21155).—PAPUA-NIUGUINI Stn DW 3992, 06°03’S, 147°36’E, 450–480 m, 09.12.2012: 2 F 4.6–4.7 mm (MNHN-IU-2014-21165).—MADEEP Stn DW 4268, 05°33’S, 153°59’E, 383–720 m, 27.4.2014: 1 M 3.8 mm, 1 F 5.6 mm (MNHN-IU- 2013-2382, IU-2014-21156).— Stn DW 4269, 05°35’S, 153°58’E, 607–672 m, 27.4.2014: 1 M 4.6 mm (MNHN-IU-2014-18570).— Stn DW 4285, 09°11’S, 153°55’E, 380–411 m, 30.4.2014: 1 M 9.5 mm (MNHN-IU-2013-3027).— Stn DW 4286, 09°12’S, 153°55’E, 306–365 m, 30.4.2014: 10 M 9.2–29.6 mm, 3 ov. F 27.2–27.6 mm, 8 F 4.7–21.2 mm (MNHN-IU-2013-3024, IU-2013-3116, IU- 2014-13703).— Stn DW 4287, 09°12’S, 153°56’E, 340–375 m, 30.4.2014: 11 M 4.6–21.6 mm, 1 F 4.9 mm (MNHN- IU-2013-3103).— Stn DW 4292, 09°14’S, 153°52’E, 530 m, 30.4.2014: 1 M 13.2 mm (MNHN-IU-2014-18307) .

New Caledonia. KANACONO Stn DW 4666, 22°53’S, 167°17’E, 530–545 m, 12.8.2016: 2 F 4.0– 8.8 mm (MNHN-IU-2014-23781) .

Distribution. Previously known from Indonesia ( Moluccas, Manado Bight), Australia (Timor Sea off Darwin, Northern Territory), the Philippines, off northern Mindoro, and Japan west of Nagasaki; 293– 602 m. The present material was collected from Papua-New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, 306– 720 m.

Remarks. Eumunida pacifica is closely related to E. keijii (de Saint-Laurent & Macpherson 1990a; de Saint- Laurent & Poupin 1996; Baba 2005). These species can be differentiated by: the size of the hepatic spines of the carapace (subequal in E. keijii , whereas the first spine is clearly longer than others in E. pacifica ) and the length of the P1 is more than 3.6 times the carapace length in E. pacifica , and instead of less than 3.5 times in E. keijii . The specimens examined have the hepatic spines of difference sizes and the length of P1 is usually more than 3.6 times the carapace length, and are therefore considered E. pacifica . However, in some specimens, the hepatic spines are nearly subequal and the P1 length less than 3.5 times carapace length as in E. keijii . The variability of these differentiating characters suggests material of both species warrants revision in order to clarify their taxonomic status.