Cryptodromiopsis sarraburei ( Rathbun, 1910 )

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 203

Cryptodromiopsis sarraburei ( Rathbun, 1910)

( Fig. 47B)

Dromidia larraburei Rathbun, 1910: 553 , pl. 48, fig. 4. — Schmitt 1921: 183, pl. 33, fig. 1. — Rathbun 1937: 35, text fig. 13, pl. 7, figs. 4, 5. — Kerstich 1989: 244.

Dromidia segnipes Weymouth, 1910: 15 , pl. 1, figs. 1, 2.

Cryptodromiopsis larraburei . — McLay 1993: 187. — Hendrickx 1997: 17, fig. 33.

Cryptodromiopsis sarraburei . — Boyko 1998: 234.

Diagnosis. Carapace setose, rounded, inflated, longer than wide. Front narrow, with 3 teeth, lateral margins with 4–6 small teeth. Flagellum of antenna long; eye, antennules retractile into common orbito-antennary pits. Third maxilliped more or less square to rectangular, covering oral field. Chelipeds short, stout; fingers gaping at base. Pereopods 2, 3 with curved dactyls; pereopod 4 narrow, subdorsal, with curved dactyl; pereopod 5 short, subdorsal, with spiny dactyl folding against spine of propodus. Female genital openings coxal. Abdominal somite 6 with uropods plates. Male carapace width 15 mm, female 28 mm.

Color in life. Pale brown to gray, apices of chelae red (color photo by Kerstich 1989).

Habitat and depth. Rocks or sand, low intertidal zone to 82 m.

Range. Monterey Bay , California to Sechura Bay, Peru , but rarely collected north of Baja California, Mexico . Type locality Sechura Bay , Peru .

Remarks. In life, the crab carries a sponge or colonial ascidian over its dorsal surface.