WILLIAMS: CRABS OF THE GEhTUS CALLINECTES 



July, Estado de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; August, 

 Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam; September, Ven- 

 ezuela, the Guianas; December, St. Thomas, Es- 

 tado de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Taissoun (1969) 

 reported ovigerous females from the Golfo de Ven- 

 ezuela in January and May. Undated collections 

 are recorded from southern Florida, Margarita Is- 

 land, Venezuela, and Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil. 



Remarks. — It is difficult to distinguish some 

 juveniles, immature males, and adult females of 

 C. ornatus from C danae and C. similis. Helpful 

 distinguishing comparisons are the following: 

 males have a narrower abdomen than C. danae; 

 mature females have a smaller abdomen than C. 

 danae; identification of small- to moderate-sized 

 juveniles is often a matter of judgment based on 

 shape of anterolateral teeth, length of obsolescent 

 submesial frontal teeth, and wid^ of the metagas- 

 tric area. 



Width of the metagastric area approaches that 

 of C. similis in some individuals and is a good 

 separating character from C. danae for juveniles 

 in regions where no confusion with C. similis can 

 occur. Borders of this area are more prominently 

 defined than in C similis, but become indistinct 

 with age; in that condition they approach the 

 smoothness of young C. similis. Callinectes or- 

 natus apparently shows less variation than C. 

 danae. 



Callinectes humphreyi Jones, 1968, was based 

 on an albinistic immature female from Barbados 

 (carapace length 29, total width 60 mm). Though 

 its status must remain an enigma because the 

 type was lost through accident in 1969 (dried 

 specimen destroyed by a bloodhound pup; Jones, 

 pers. commun.) and no illustration was furnished 

 with the description, it was characterized as, 

 "nearest to C. ornatus, from which it may be im- 

 mediately distinguished by its very different 

 coloring .... C. humphreyi is pure white, except 

 for a band of intense violet-purple on the inner 

 surface of each cheliped, which fades to light red in 

 dried specimens. C. humphreyi is also distin- 

 guished by its smaller size, the deeper, more con- 

 spicuous sinuses between the anterolateral teeth, 

 the relatively longer intramedial area and the 

 distinctly triangular shape of the abdomen." The 

 form was found to be quite common along the 

 southwestern coast of the island where it was usu- 

 ally seen quite near shore at low tide, the white 

 color camouflaging the animals well on the area's 

 sandy bottom. In view of the obvious similarity to 



C. ornatus, endemic occurrence, and coloration 

 falling within the range recognized by Verrill 

 (1908a), it seems likely that this is a color variant 

 of C. ornatus. 



Williams.(1966), in restricting C. ornatus, noted 

 that syntypes from Charleston, S.C. were from a 

 locality representing an apparent extreme north- 

 ern limit of geographic range. At that time no 

 other specimens were known from the Carolinas, 

 although the species is abundant in southern 

 Florida. Other material from northeastern 

 Florida as well as North Carolina is now avail- 

 able. There is little doubt that these northern rec- 

 ords still represent peripheral localities, as do 

 those from southwestern Florida between Char- 

 lotte Harbor and Tampa Bay. Records for C or- 

 natus in New Jersey (Chace and Hobbs, 1969; 

 Taissoun, 1969) represent C. similis, the Carolin- 

 ian congener of C. ornatus. Collections from 

 Bermuda are large, and it was primarily on the 

 basis of these that Verrill (1908b) postulated drift 

 of larvae in oceanic currents as island colonizers 

 for the genus. 



Locality data for specimens 30-6 and 30-8 in 

 MNHNP (M. Fontaines) from "Chili" identified as 

 Neptunus diacanthus Latr. (identified as C or- 

 natus by Rathbun, 1896) are in error. 



Material. — Total: 351 lots, 1,260+ specimens. 



Specimens listed in Rathbun (1930) from 

 USNM and MCZ (listings from New Jersey, North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas = 

 C. similis). 



USNM. 161 lots, 646 specimens, including the 

 following not cited above: 



BERMUDA 



65644, Hungry Bay, Apr. 1928, 1 S, E. Deich- 

 mann. 



UNITED STATES 



North Carolina: 77013, Sea Buoy, Beaufort, 10 

 Oct. 1935, 1 c^, 1 9, J. S. Outsell. 



Florida: 122995, 28°21.5'N, 80°33.5'W, 4 Apr. 

 1940, 1 6, Pelican Stn. 207-1. 122987, shoreline, W 

 side Norris Cut, N end Virginia Key, Miami, 23 

 Aug. 1966, 1 9 (juv), col. unknown. 76989, Coral 

 Gables, no date, 1 2, 1 juv, J. F. W. Pearson. 76966, 

 Coral Gables, no date, 1 2 (parasitized), J. F. W. 

 Pearson. 122994, Biscayne Bay, 5 Sept. 1938, 5 6, 5 

 2, USFWS Launch 58. 113459, Pigeon Key, Mon- 

 roe Co., 7 Aug. 1965, 6 <?, 4 2 (parasitized), R. B. 

 Manning. 122988, beach area and tidal flats SW 



741 



