Randallia ornata ( Randall, 1840 )

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 206

Randallia ornata ( Randall, 1840)

( Fig. 47G, H, Pl. 10G)

Ilia ornata Randall, 1840: 129 .

Randallia ornata . — Stimpson 1857b: 471, pl. 19, fig. 3. — Holmes 1900: 100. — Rathbun 1904: 170; 1937: 172, pl. 49, figs. 1 2. — Weymouth 1910: 18, pl. 1, fig. 3. — Schmitt 1921: 188, fig. 11. — Johnson & Snook 1927: 363, fig. 314 — Ricketts et al. 1985: 321, fig. 247. — Jensen 1995: 34, fig. 52. — Hendrickx 1997: 163, fig. 114 (extensive synonymy). — Kuris et al. 2007: 640, pl. 319, fig. J.

Randallia angelica Garth, 1940: 54 , pl. 11, figs. 1, 2.

Diagnosis. Carapace of adult nearly smooth, with few scattered granules and minute spinules on lateral margin, juveniles with numerous rough tubercles, posterior margin with two prominent tubercles. Front short, narrow; with concave anterior margin, eye set into margin. Third maxillipeds triangular, long. Cheliped long and subcylindrical; hand, fingers narrow, fingers acute. Pereopods 2–5 similar, with simple dactyls. Male, female genital openings sternal. Male carapace width 53.2 mm, female 34.9 mm.

Color in life. Carapace cream marked with reddish to purple spots, patches; chelipeds, legs cream; chelipeds with red-purple bars, blotches; legs with prominent red to purple bands on merus. The color notes are from crabs taken at San Pedro, California.

Habitat and depth. Sand, lowest intertidal zone to 94 m. The crab often buries itself leaving only the front exposed.

Range. Mendocino County, California to Magdalena Bay , Baja California; northern Gulf of California between Isla Angel de la Guardia, Point Willard, Tiburon I. and Cape Tepoca, Sonora. Type locality "California" (perhaps Monterey, where some of Randall's specimens were collected) .

Remarks. Weymouth (1910), Schmitt (1921), and Rathbun (1937) reported Randallia bulligera Rathbun, 1898 from San Diego, California.There have been no subsequent reports of this crab from California. This crab has a tuberculate carapace. Schmitt speculated that this crab might actually be the juvenile of another species, but Hendrickx (1997: 160) treated it as a distinct species, usually ranging from Baja California, Mexico to Peru.