Karstarma Davie & Ng, 2007

Wowor, Daisy & Ng, Peter K. L., 2018, A new sesarmid crab of the genus Karstarma (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) associated with limestone formations in East Java, Indonesia, Zootaxa 4482 (2), pp. 355-366 : 356

Genus Karstarma Davie & Ng, 2007

Type species. Sesarmoides boholano Ng, 2002 , by original designation.

Remarks. Ng (2002) described several new cavernicolous species of Sesarmoides Serène & Soh, 1970 from the Indo-West Pacific and commented that the genus could be separated into two groups. Davie & Ng (2007) subsequently found more characters diagnosing the two groups, and established a new genus, Karstarma , for the cave-dwelling species previously assigned to Sesarmoides . Davie & Ng (2007) used both spellings Karstarma and Karstama in their original paper (see also Ng et al. 2008) but Wowor & Ng (2009) selected the former name as the correct one in accordance with Article 24.2.3 of the Code ( ICZN 1999) (see also Husana et al. 2010).

Fifteen species of Karstarma were heretofore known, all from the Indo-West Pacific: K. ardea Wowor & Ng, 2009 , K. balicum ( Ng, 2002) , K. boholano ( Ng, 2002) , K. cerberus ( Holthuis, 1964) , K. emdi ( Ng & Whitten, 1995) , K. guamense ( Ng, 2002) , K. jacksoni ( Balss, 1934) , K. jacobsoni ( Ihle, 1912) , K. loyalty ( Ng, 2002) , K. microphthalmus ( Naruse & Ng, 2007) , K. novabritannia ( Ng, 1988) , K. philippinarum Husana, Naruse & Kase, 2010 , K. sulu ( Ng, 2002) , K. ultrapes ( Ng, Guinot & Iliffe, 1994) , and K. waigeo Wowor & Ng, 2009 ( Naruse et al. 2005; Ng et al. 2008; Wowor & Ng 2009; Husana e t al. 2010). The present paper adds one more species, the second from Java.

As discussed by Wowor & Ng (2009), there are two major groups of Karstarma ; one with relatively shorter ambulatory legs and a smaller vulva (with the type species), while a second has prominently longer ambulatory legs and a large vulva; suggesting the genus may need to be separated in the future. Among the group (with shorter ambulatory legs), three species ( K. jacobsoni , K. microphthalmus and K. malang n. sp.) are also distinct in that they live deeper in caves and tend to stay on the ground (i.e. not climbers), have distinct reduced eyes and at least two of the Javan species have large eggs suggesting direct development (see later). They appear to be more related to species of Geosesarma De Man, 1892 , which are very species-rich in Java and other Indonesian islands (see Ng et al. 2015).