Munida babai Tirmizi and Javed, 1976

McCallum, Anna W., Ahyong, Shane T. & Andreakis, Nikos, 2021, New species of squat lobsters of the genus Munida from Australia, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 80, pp. 113-152 : 138-139

Munida babai Tirmizi and Javed, 1976

Munida babai Tirmizi and Javed, 1976: 81–85 , fig. 1, 2 (type locality: off Natal , South Africa). — Baba et al., 2008: 88. — McEnnulty et al., 2011: app. 1.

Material examined. Western Australia: NMV J55044 , 2 males (cl 7.7 mm, pcl 5.1 mm to cl 7.8 mm, pcl 5.3 mm), Ningaloo North , 21° 58.704' S, 113° 49.2' E to 21° 59.052' S, 113° 49.2' E, 170–177 m, SS10/2005/152, 10 December 2005 ; NMV J55041 , 2 males (cl 7.8 mm, pcl 5.3 mm; cl 9.2 mm, pcl 5.9 mm), Ningaloo North , 21° 59.172' S, 113° 49.2' E to 21° 59.79' S, 113° 49.14' E, 165–166 m, SS10/2005/153, 11 December 2005 ; NMV J55042 , 3 females (cl 6.0 mm, pcl 3.8 mm; cl 6.1 mm, pcl 4.0 mm), 4 males (cl 7.7 mm, pcl 5.0 mm; cl 8.1 mm, pcl 5.7 mm), Barrow Island , 20° 59.082' S, 114° 54.42' E to 20° 59.67' S, 114° 54.54' E, 100–101 m, SS10/2005/170, 13 December 2005 .

Genetic data. CO1; see Table 1.

Remarks. Originally described from off South Africa (off Natal), M. babai has subsequently been reported from shelf depths across the Indian Ocean as far east as Hong Kong ( Baba, 1988). It can be distinguished by the presence of spines on the anterior margin of abdominal somite 4 and very short supraocular spines. As noted by Baba (1988), the number of spines on the abdominal somites is variable. We found abdominal somite 2 with 5–9 spines, somite 3 with 2–5, and somite 4 with 2–5 spines. The P2 dactylus is 0.75 the length of the propodus in Australian specimens compared to 0.64 for the type (based on Tirmizi and Javed, 1976: fig. 2D), and 0.84 for the Albatross material from Hong Kong and the Phillipines ( Baba, 1988). This is the first record of the species from Australia.

Distribution. South Africa, Madagascar, Hong Kong, Malaysia, 70– 456 m. Western Australia, 100– 177 m.