Lepidopa californica Efford, 1971

Boyko, Christopher B., 2010, New records and taxonomic data for 14 species of sand crabs (Crustacea: Anomura: Albuneidae) from localities worldwide, Zootaxa 2555, pp. 49-61 : 50-51

Lepidopa californica Efford, 1971

Lepidopa myops . — MacGinitie & MacGinitie 1968: 305, fig. 149 (not Paraleucolepidopa myops (Stimpson, 1860)) .

Lepidopa californica . — Ricketts et al., 1985: 336, 541, fig. 261. — Hendrickx, 1993b: 282, 308 (list). — Hendrickx, 1995: 546 (list). — Jensen, 1995: 77. — Boschi, 2000: 89 (list). — Boyko, 2002: 140 –146, figs. 46, 47 (full synonymy). — Paul, 2003: 6. — Ahyong & O’Meally, 2004: 688 (list). — Hendrickx, 2005: 178 (distribution). — McLaughlin et al, 2005: 240 (list). — Kuris et al., 2007: 648 (key), 654. — Wicksten, 2008: 282 (partial synonymy, see below). — Ahyong et al., 2009: 402 (list). — Bracken et al., 2009: 103, fig. 2.

Lepidopa californicus [sic]. — Morrison et al., 2002: 346.

Lipidopa [sic] californica . — Paul, 2003: 4, fig. 1.

Material examined. Mexico: Baja California Norte, Gulf of California, south of Pond Island, Angel de la Guarda Island, 62–76 fms (113.4–139.0 m), 5 Feb 1940, coll. R/V "Velero III": 1 male, 9.6 mm cl ( LACM CR 1940-052.4). Baja California Sur, ocean side, Magdalena Bay (Bahia Magdalena), 15 fms (= 27.4 m), 3 Dec 1931, coll. unknown: 1 male, 5.1 mm cl ( USNM 1011076).

Distribution. Los Angeles Co., California, to Bahia Magdalena, Baja California Sur, Mexico, to 27.4 m depth; also in Gulf of California, Mexico, 113–139 m depth ( Boyko 2002, herein).

Remarks. The LACM specimen cited above was identified by Efford (1971), but was explicitly excluded from the type series of L. californica .

Boyko (2002) did not examine Efford’s Gulf of California specimen (LACM specimen cited above), and noted that this record might be correct for L. californica but that an undescribed species might also exist. Examination of the specimen in question shows that it is clearly conspecific with L. californica . The only difference of note between the Mexican and Californian specimens is that the fragments of carapace groove (CG) 4 on the carapace extend further medially in one Mexican specimen (LACM), while the indent of the dactylus of pereopod II is slightly broader in the other (USNM). The range of L. californica is therefore confirmed to extend into the Gulf of Mexico, but is also extended considerably further south on the ocean side of Baja California Sur.

Note that the single record of L. californica from the Gulf of California was collected in much deeper water than any specimens from the west coast of the United States or Mexico. This suggests the possibility that this species may only occur in deeper, colder waters in the Gulf, but more specimens need to be collected to determine if this is correct.

Wicksten (2008) incorrectly included Lepidopa myops Stimpson, 1860 (now Paraleucolepidopa myops ) in synonymy with L. californica . There are also errors in Wicksten’s synonymy list for L. californica: Ricketts et al. (1985) correctly cited the species as L. californica (but in earlier editions of that work it was listed as L.

myops ), and the figure number is 261, not 216. Haig & Abbott (1980) do not mention Lepidopa myops anywhere in their book chapter.