Calliax de Saint Laurent, 1973

Poore, Gary C. B., Dworschak, Peter C., Robles, Rafael, Mantelatto, Fernando L. & Felder, Darryl L., 2019, A new classification of Callianassidae and related families (Crustacea: Decapoda: Axiidea) derived from a molecular phylogeny with morphological support, Memoirs of Museum Victoria (Mem. Mus. Vic.) 78, pp. 73-146 : 126

Calliax de Saint Laurent, 1973

Calliax de Saint Laurent, 1973: 514 .— Manning, 1987: 397.—

Sakai, 1988: 61.— Manning and Felder, 1991: 783.— Sakai, 1999a: 109–110.— Ngoc-Ho, 2003: 489–490.— Sakai, 2005b: 196–197.— Sakai, 2011: 495–496.— Hyžný and Gasparic, 2014: 42–45.— Sakai, 2018: 738.

Type species. Callianassa (Callichirus) lobata de Gaillande and Lagardère, 1966 , by original designation and monotypy.

Diagnosis. Maxilliped 3 ischium and merus narrow, more than twice as long as wide at their articulation. Male major chela with palm about twice as long as carpus, 1.5 times as long as wide, minor chela half as wide, with short fingers. Minor cheliped fingers with wide gape, with tooth at base of fingers, fingers not closing along length. Male pleopod 1 article 2 curved, simply curving to sharp apex; without appendix interna. Male pleopod 2 appendix interna absent; appendix masculina a lobe fused to appendix interna attached midway on endopod margin, reaching or exceeding tip of endopod. Telson widest anteriorly, more or less semicircular.

Remarks. The wide gape between the fingers of the minor cheliped, with an intermediate tooth, immediately defines species of Calliax .

Sakai (1999a) treated Eucalliax as a junior synonym of Calliax and later (2005b) added Calliaxina to this synonymy. Ngoc-Ho (2003) clearly differentiated these three genera and Paraglypturus . Sakai (2011) appears to have accepted Ngoc- Ho’s arguments and he confined Calliax to just two species; one has been added since ( Ngoc-Ho, 2014). Sakai’s (2011) generic diagnosis contained several generalities referrable to many callianassoids but apart from mention of “P1 unequal in size and dissimilar in shape” acknowledges none of the defining generic characters. His key would fail to discriminate the genus as presently diagnosed. Sakai’s (2011) “diagnoses” of the two species are largely replications of his inadequate generic diagnosis, apart from subtle differences in the description of the shapes of their telsons. The type species has been illustrated most recently by Sakai (2017b) and García Raso et al. (2019). Their records are from 622 m and 457–548 m depth respectively in the Mediterranean; previous records are from only a few metres depth.