A new large oregoniid spider crab of the genus Pleistacantha Miers, 1879, from the Bay of Bengal, India (Crustacea, Brachyura, Majoidea)

By

Ng, Peter K. L.
Ravinesh, Raveendhiran
Ravichandran, S.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

716

Pages

127-146

Subjects

deep-water , Indian Ocean , new species , Oregoniidae , Pleistacantha , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.716.21349

 

Abstract

A new species of deep-water oregoniid spider crab of the genus Pleistacantha Miers, 1879, is described from the Indian Ocean. The species is distinct in possessing a prominently inflated carapace in which the median parts of the branchial regions almost meet. It can also be distinguished from its closest congeners, P. moseleyi (Miers, 1885), P. pungens (Wood-Mason, in Wood-Mason and Alcock 1891), and P. ori Ahyong & Ng, 2007, in its more elongate and less spinose chelipeds and ambulatory legs, shorter third maxilliped, trapezoidal male pleon and a male first gonopod which is relatively stout with a short subdistal dorsal papilla.