WILLIAMS: CRABS OF THE GENUS CALUNECTES 



North Carolina: 2246, West Bay near Cedar I., 

 Pamlico Sound, Carteret Co., 21 July 1969, 2 9 

 (ov), includes smallest mature 9 on record, from 

 fisherman. 821, Neuse River near New Bern, Cra- 

 ven Co., 24 July 1957, 1 S (juv), Tagatz and Dud- 

 ley. 738, Neuse River at Smith Farm, near North 

 Harlowe, Craven Co., 1 Oct. 1957, 3 <5 , 1 9 , juv, 

 Judy and Dudley. 739, Neuse River at North Har- 

 lowe, 26 July 1957, 3 9 (juv), Tagatz and Dudley. 

 820, Pivers Island near Beaufort, Carteret Co., 27 

 May 1957, 1 c5, 4 9 (juv), Talbot and Fischler. 913, 

 off Beaufort Inlet, 26 Nov. 1959, 4 9(3 ov), covered 

 with Chelonibia, H. J. Porter. 



PUERTO RICO 



2136, Fresh water canal, 5 km S Lajas, 10 Feb. 

 1967, 3<? , 19 juv. 



YPM. 1 lot, 1 specimen. 



BRAZIL 



6399, Rio Grande, 7 June 1860, 1 6 bearing 

 Chelonibia, G. Harrington. 



Supplementary literature records . — Nova Scotia 

 (Piers, 1923); Maine and Nova Scotia (Scatter- 

 good, 1960); Bermuda (Verrill, 1908a, b); Laguna 

 Madre deTamaulipas, Mexico (Hildebrand, 1957); 

 Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico (Contreras, 1930); 

 Dominica (Chace and Hobbs, 1969); Lago de 

 Maracaibo and Golfo de Venezuela (Taissoun, 

 1969); Quenquen, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

 [?] (Boschi, 1964); Elbe estuary, Germany (Kiihl, 

 1965); Netherlands and North Sea localities 

 (Holthuis, 1969); mouth of Gironde, France 

 (Amanieu and Dantec, 1961); Gulf of Spezia and 

 Genoa Harbor, Italy (Tortonese, 1965); northern 

 Adriatic lagoons, Italy (Holthuis, 1961 [review]); 

 Greece and parts of eastern Mediterranean (Ser- 

 betis, 1959); Beirut, Lebanon (George and 

 Athanassiou, 1965); Buljayrat Idkii and Buljayrat 

 Manzilah, Egypt (Banoub, 1963). 



QUESTIONABLE SPECIES 



Rathbun ( 1907) described Callinectes alexandri 

 from Papeete, Tahiti, and Suva, Fiji Islands, on 

 basis of two juveniles, and later (1911) noted a 

 small mature male from Cragados, Carajos 

 [Shoals, Mascarene Islands, Indian Ocean]. 

 Stephenson and Campbell (1959) synonymized 

 this confusing form with Portunus pelagicus 

 (Linn.), commenting on its close similarity to 



members oi Callinectes and temporarily question- 

 ing the validity of Callinectes. Later Stephenson 

 et al. (1968) accepted the generic status quo. 

 Stephenson (1968) confirmed his recognition of 

 Callinectes and, after examination of Rathbun 's 

 specimens of C. alexandri, reidentified the Tahiti 

 and Fiji material as P. sanguinolentus (Herbst) 

 and the Indian Ocean specimen as P. pelagicus. 

 The history of these bleached specimens em- 

 phasizes the difficulty in identifying some juvenile 

 portunid material. 



Chen (1933) described Callinectes platei on 

 basis of a small male (length 14, width 29 mm), 

 and C. alcocki on basis of a small ovigerous female 

 (length 10.5, width including lateral spines 16 

 mm) from Tuticorin [Madras, India]. There is no 

 sure way to identify these forms because speci- 

 mens from the Plate collection are apparently no 

 longer in existence. From the descriptions and 

 figures, the two species possibly represent male 

 and female of the same form, a small portunid 

 with internal carpal spine. This alone is enough to 

 remove them from Callinectes. Moreover, no 

 known Callinectes is ovigerous at the tiny size of 

 this female. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The need for taxonomic reassessment of the 

 genus Callinectes was first suggested to me by 

 Fenner A. Chace, Jr., of the USNM, a man whose 

 grasp of decapod crustacean systematics has been 

 an inspiration to me for many years. I am indebted 

 to him for continuing aid and many kindnesses. 

 Numerous people and organizations have given 

 assistance in bringing the study to completion, 

 some but not all of whom can be listed here. The 

 National Science Foundation through Grant No. 

 GB-6780 provided means to study major collec- 

 tions over the world, especially at the USNM for 

 an academic year, and the University of North 

 Carolina, Chapel Hill, generously granted me 

 leave for that period. Studies at the Allan Hancock 

 Foundation, University of Southern California, 

 were aided by John S. Garth; American Museum 

 of Natural History by Dorothy E. Bliss and Harold 

 Feinberg; Academy of Natural Sciences by C. W. 

 Hart, Jr.; British Museum of Natural History by 

 Isabella Gordon, Anthony L. Rice, and R. W. Ingle; 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology by Herbert W. 

 Levi; Museum National D'Histoire Nature lie, 

 Paris, by Jacques Forest; Rijksmuseum van 

 Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, by L. B. Holthuis; 



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