Records of the Western Australian Museum 18: 357-359 (1998). 
Dicranodromia karubar Guinot, 1993, a deep-water crab new to the 
Australian fauna (Crustacea: Brachyura: Homolodromiidae) 
Marcos Tavares 
Universidade Santa Ursula, Rio de Janeiro, 22231-040, RJ, Brazil 
INTRODUCTION 
Of the eight species of Dicranodromia A. Milne 
Edwards, 1880 occurring in the Indo-West Pacific 
ocean, only one is known from Australian waters 
(Davie & Short, 1989; Guinot, 1995). Because the 
two homolodromiid specimens (a male and an 
ovigerous female from Queensland, from depths of 
590 m and 650 m, respectively) known from 
Australia are damaged (Guinot, 1995: 220), their 
identity is still unclear. Davie and Short (1989: 158- 
159) referred the male QM W10801 to D. baffini 
(Alcock and Anderson, 1899), whereas Guinot 
(1995) assigned it, as well as the ovigerous female 
QM W14372, to Dicranodromia aff. foersteri Guinot, 
1993, "sous reserve". 
Among the crab material in the collections of the 
Western Australian Museum, Perth, is an 
ovigerous female of Dicranodromia karubar Guinot, 
1993. This species was previously known from 
Indonesia, and is here recorded for the first time 
from Australian waters. 
The terminology follows Guinot (1995). 
Abbreviations used include: QM = Queensland 
Museum, Brisbane; WAM = Western Australian 
Museum, Perth; PI, cheliped; P2-P5, second, third, 
fourth and fifth pereiopod respectively; cl and cw 
correspond to carapace maximal length and width 
respectively expressed in millimiters (mm); m, 
meters. 
Dicranodromia karubar Guinot, 1993 
Figure 1A-E 
Dicranodromia karubar Guinot, 1993: 1228, figure 4; 
1995: 213, figure 15a-c, 16A-D, 25A-B 
Material examined 
Australia, Western Australia, west of Lacepede 
Archipelago, F. V. "Soela", 21.2.1984, 16°54.1'S - 
119°56.6'E to 16°35.2'S - 119°53.1'E, 434 m: 
ovigerous female cl 29; cw 24 (WAM 166-93). 
Geographic and bathymetric range.- Indonesia; 
Moluccas Archipelago (Kai and Tanimbar islands); 
and Western Australia (this report); from 356 to 
468 m. 
Remarks 
The Western Australian specimen agrees well 
with the Indonesian specimens. In the Australian 
material the dactylus of P2 and P3 bears 6-8 sharp 
spines on the cutting edge (figure IE), and 
although this was not described by Guinot (1995: 
202 in the key; 215), it also occurs in the Indonesian 
specimens (Guinot, in letteris). 
D. karubar can be distinguished from D. foersteri 
find D. baffini by the following characters: (1) in D. 
karubar the carapace is covered with short, thick, 
erect, yellowish tomentum, whereas D. foersteri has 
scattered setae; (2) the rostral median spine is 
absent or represented by a tubercle in D. karubar, 
but represented by a spine in D. foersteri; (3) the 
palm of the cheliped is adorned with few and 
scattered granules (figure IB) in D. karubar, but 
regularly covered with granules in D. foersteri; (4) 
there is a distinct comma-like bulge located just 
above the opening of the spermatheca in D. karubar, 
but only a rounded tubercle in D. foersteri. 
Characters 3 find 4 also distinguish D. karubar from 
D. baffini (Guinot, 1995: 217, 220). 
The Australian specimen of D. karubar carried 
about 80 reddish eggs of 1 mm diameter. Guinot 
(1995: 166) noticed that "...a taille sensiblement 
egale des individus, il existe selon les especes des 
differences assez grandes dans le diametre des 
oeufs, et done dans leur nombre". Caustier (1895) 
mentioned eggs of 2 mm diameter in D. ovata A. 
Milne Edwards, 1880; Martin (1991) examined an 
ovigerous female of D. felderi Martin, 1990, 
carrying oval eggs of 2.4 x 1.9 mm; Guinot (1995) 
found relatively large and few eggs in the 
following species: D. pequegnati Guinot, 1995, about 
30 eggs of 2 x 1.5 mm; D. spinulata Guinot, 1995: 
apparently no more than six eggs measuring about 
1 mm; D. doederleini Ortmann, 1892: less than 50 
large eggs; D. foesteri : 150-200 subspherical eggs 
ranging from 2 to 2.2 mm. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
1 am sincerely grateful to Daniele Guinot 
(Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris), to 
