Xenograpsus, TAKEDA & KURATA, 1977

Martin, Joel W. & Haney, Todd A., 2005, Decapod crustaceans from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps: a review through 2005, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (4), pp. 445-522 : 498

XENOGRAPSUS TAKEDA & KURATA, 1977

Remarks: Although referred to occasionally as ‘hydrothermal vent crabs’, crabs of the genus Xenograpsus are clearly related to and derived from nearby grapsoid shore crabs and are thus quite different from the ‘true’ vent crabs of the family Bythograeidae . To our knowledge they are restricted to the shallow volcanic vent habitat and are thus endemic (rather than vagrant) species. To date these two species are the only known obligate shallow-water hydrothermal vent crabs ( Jeng, Clark & Ng, 2004a; Jeng, Ng & Ng, 2004b). Larvae have been described for one species (see below). The two described species are known from Japan and Taiwan (below), although a crab of this genus also has been observed (though apparently not yet reported) from off New Zealand (P. Ng, pers. comm.).