Pinnotheres pugettensis Holmes, 1900

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 258

Pinnotheres pugettensis Holmes, 1900

( Fig. 60A, B)

Pinnotheres pugettensis Holmes, 1900: 86 . — Rathbun 1904: 185; 1917: 63, pl. 17, figs. 7, 8; pl. 18, fig. 1, text fig. 39. — Johnson & Snook 1927: 390. — Schmitt et al. 1973: 82. — Garth & Abbott 1980: 613. — Hart 1982: 232, fig. 96. — Jensen 1995: 32, fig. 45.

Diagnosis. Female: carapace soft, smooth, subpentagonal. Front triangular, curved downwards. Orbits nearly circular. Antennae short. Third maxillipeds oblique, strongly pubescent; merus narrow with outer margin convex; penultimate joint broad, subquadrate, distally truncated; dactyl inserted at lower proximal edge. Cheliped smooth, merus short, upper margin with setae, hand narrow, elongate, smooth; dactyl, inner side of palm short, pubescent; fingers nearly straight with hooked apices, dactyl with low tooth near base of inner margin. Pereopods 2–5 increasing in length posteriorly, propodi setose, dactyls narrow, compressed, apex forming short, curved claw. Dactyl of pereopod 5 longer than propodus, longer than that of pereopod 4. Carapace length 10 mm. Male: Smaller than female, entire body usually covered by dense brown pile. Carapace slightly longer than wide to about as long as wide, front produced, with medial sulcus, faint grooves along gastric, cardiac regions. Orbits, antennae small. Third maxilliped similar to that of female, last two segments slightly shorter. Abdomen with 7 segments, tapering from proximal end to obtusely pointed apex. Chelipeds robust, chela with groove on inner surface from articulation of dactyl to proximal dorsal edge. Fingers of chelae with acute apices, crossing; fixed finger with row of sharp teeth on cutting edge. Pereopods 2–5 decreasing gradually in length from anterior to posterior, robust, pilose. Pereopods 2–4 with long setae on propodus or propodus, carpus. Dactyls acute, long, subequal in size. Carapace length to 5.8 mm, width to 6.4 mm.

Color in life. Female very pale, almost translucent white to yellowish, outer surface of palm of chela with light-colored net-like pattern. Male light brown ( Hart 1982).

Habitat and depth. Symbiotic with large solitary ascidians, sponge Tethya californiana (de Laubenfels, 1932) ; and rock scallop Crassadomas gigantea (Gray, 1838) ; 6– 64 m.

Range. Spider Anchorage, British Columbia; Puget Sound, Monterey Bay and King Harbor , Los Angeles County , California. Type locality Puget Sound .