RESUMEN
The taxonomy of the poorly known pilumnid crab, Pseudolitochira integra (Miers, 1884), has been confused because the original description and figures of the type female have inaccuracies, and the specimen has not been examined in detail since the original publication. Consequently, numerous specimens from the Indo-West Pacific have been incorrectly assigned to P. integra, suggesting that this species is widely distributed. The type female was micro-CT scanned in order to provide video and accurate figures of this rare pilumnid. The female possesses a suite of carapace and pereopodal characters that distinctly distinguish it from other pilumnoid taxa. The species is redescribed, refigured and formally designated as the type species of Pseudolitochira Ward, 1942. The identities of the numerous specimens assigned to P. integra are discussed and the distribution of the species is restricted to the western Indian Ocean for the time being.
Asunto(s)
Braquiuros/anatomía & histología , Braquiuros/clasificación , Animales , Femenino , Océano Pacífico , Microtomografía por Rayos XRESUMEN
Lobithelphusa Rodriguez, 1982 is endemic to southern Mexico. Assigned to this monotypic genus is the freshwater pseudothelphusid crab, L. mexicana Rodriguez, 1982. The original description based on an old, dry, male specimen in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London, is brief and the crab was only partially figured. Lobithelphusa mexicana has subsequently never been recorded from Mexico and, consequently, the conservation status of this species is unknown. The type specimen has a complete, but detached left chela; is devoid of the left ambulatory pereiopods 1-3, with the fourth missing the carpus, propodus and dactylus; and its left first gonopod detached but retained in a glass tube kept adjacent to the crab. In spite of this damage the crab is still in remarkably good condition for a specimen registered in 1860. The purpose of this study is to apply computed tomography (CT) scanning techniques on the extant type, including its first gonopod, in order to provide detailed illustrations of the crab. These, in turn, shall be used to re-describe the species in order to help establish the current distribution status of L. mexicana in Mexico, and clarify its systematic position within the Pseudothelphusidae Ortmann, 1893.
Asunto(s)
Braquiuros , Decápodos , Animales , Agua Dulce , Londres , Masculino , MéxicoRESUMEN
A number of authors have described the zoeal development of the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis H. Milne Edwards, 1853, while some of these studies only recognised 5 zoeal stages, two of them described six. The present study re-examined the zoeal stages of E. sinensis from laboratory-reared material using confocal laser scanning microscopy and visualised the images using the open-source software programmes ImageJ and Drishti. From these images 6 zoeal stages were re-described and compared with all previous larval descriptions of the Chinese mitten crab. Comments on the variation of some setal characters are also described in zoeal stages IV-VI.