Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 122 1967 Number 3599 



Porluiiid Crabs from the 



International Indian Ocean Expedition 



In the Smithsonian Collections 



(Crustacea: Portunidae) 



By W. Stephenson and May Rees^ 



The present material, mostly collected by the Anton Bruun on 

 Cruises 1 and 4B, comprises 35 recognisable species that are present in 

 very unequal numbers. Of the total of 3444 specimens, 2250 were 

 of one species (Portunus argentatus). Of the remaining 1194, 442 

 specimens were of one species (Charybdis hoplite''i) and 550 of the other 

 four {C. callianassa, C. edwardsi, C. rostrata, and P. pulchricnstatus) . 

 At the other extreme, 18 species were represented by less than five 

 specimens. Several of these are common inshore or shallow water 

 species in the Indo-West Pacific area, including Cfenatw^, C. natator, 

 P. pelagicus, P. sanguinolentus, Scylla serrata, and Thalamita crenata. 

 Their small numbers indicate merely that during the cruises these 

 environments usually were neglected in preference for offshore 

 situations. 



There is comparal)le heterogeneity in the numbers of species re- 

 corded from the difl'erent stations; thus, five species were recorded 

 from 1 station (202A), four species from 7 stations, three from 10, 

 two from 16, and one species from 34 stations. Stations 201 A, 202A, 



1 Both authors: Department of Zoology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 

 Australia. 



