Opecarcinus hypostegus ( Shaw & Hopkins, 1977 )

TAVARES, MARCOS & MENDONÇA, JOEL BRAGA DE JR., 2022, Brachyuran crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the remote oceanic Archipelago Trindade and Martin Vaz, South Atlantic Ocean, Zootaxa 5146 (1), pp. 1-129 : 81

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5146.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:52C3E5E3-80B6-49DB-BC9C-194560D491F7

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7626410

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03E3878A-A828-FFF6-04F4-898DFE01FA23

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Opecarcinus hypostegus ( Shaw & Hopkins, 1977 )
status

 

Opecarcinus hypostegus ( Shaw & Hopkins, 1977) View in CoL View at ENA

( Fig. 44A, D View FIGURE 44 )

Pseudocryptochirus hypostegus Shaw & Hopkins, 1977: 179 View in CoL .

Trindade and Martin Vaz specimens. None.

Vitória–Trindade Seamount Chain material. Brazil: Espírito Santo: 1 male ( MZUSP 40810 View Materials ), REVIZEE Expedition , Vitória–Trindade Seamount Chain , Bank Jaseur, PS /V “Astro Garoupa”, stn 23C, 20°29’00’’S, 36°06’00”W, 8.xi.1997, 60 m. GoogleMaps 1 male ( MZUSP 40811 View Materials ), Vitória – Trindade Seamount Chain, R /V “Marion Dufresne”, TAAF MD55/ Brésil Expedition, Dogaressa Bank, stn 25 DC43, 20°51’S, 33°45’W, 17.v.1987, 63 m. GoogleMaps

Comparative material examined. Opecarcinus hypostegus : United States: Florida : 1 ovigerous female ( USNM 231681 About USNM ), west Laboratory Dock, 2437’N, 8257’W, 14.viii.1930, 6.1 m .

Distribution. Western Atlantic: Mexico, Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Brazil (Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, and Alagoas) ( Kropp & Manning 1987; Johnsson et al. 2006). Opecarcinus hypostegus is here recorded from much farther south in the Vitória–Trindade Seamount Chain (Jaseur and Dogaressa banks, from 60 m and 63 m, respectively). Central Atlantic: Ascension Island ( Kropp & Manning 1987).

Ecological notes. Opecarcinus hypostegus is an obligate symbiont of scleractinean corals and is known to live in association with several agariciids, such as Agaricia spp. and Helioseris cucullata (Ellis & Solander) , but can also be found on siderastreids ( Siderastrea spp. ) ( Kropp & Manning 1987; Johnsson et al. 2006; Moorsel & Meij 2018; García-Hernández et al. 2020). Kropp and Manning (1987) tentatively assigned to O. hypostegus the specimens found on agariciid corals from northeastern Brazil, previously identified as Troglocarcinus corallicola by Coelho (1966).

Remarks. Opecarcinus can be readily distinguished from Kroppcarcinus and Troglocarcinus (character states for Kroppcarcinus and Troglocarcinus between brackets) by having the surface of the thoracic sternite of P1 tuberculate anteriorly in the females ( Fig. 44A View FIGURE 44 ) (vs anterior margin of the P1 sternite tuberculate in Kroppcarcinus ; P1 sternite non tuberculate in Troglocarcinus ) ( Fig. 44B, C View FIGURE 44 ) and by several differences in the first male gonopods as figured ( Fig. 44D–F View FIGURE 44 ).

In O. hypostegus , the coxae of P2–P5 are provided with a well-developed anterior lobe in the female, somewhat less developed in the P2 coxa.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Malacostraca

Order

Decapoda

InfraOrder

Brachyura

SuperFamily

Cryptochiroidea

Family

Cryptochiridae

Genus

Opecarcinus

Loc

Opecarcinus hypostegus ( Shaw & Hopkins, 1977 )

TAVARES, MARCOS & MENDONÇA, JOEL BRAGA DE JR. 2022
2022
Loc

Pseudocryptochirus hypostegus

Shaw, J. K. & Hopkins, T. S. 1977: 179
1977
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