Grapsus grapsus ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Parasram, Nadeshinie, Santana, William & Vallès, Henri, 2023, Checklist of the shallow-water marine Brachyura (Crustacea: Decapoda) of Barbados, West Indies, Zootaxa 5314 (1), pp. 1-62 : 43-45

Grapsus grapsus ( Linnaeus, 1758)

( Fig. 20A )

Cancer grapsus Linnaeus 1758: 630 [type-locality: Ascension Island; type not found].

Grapsus pictus Lamarck, 1801: 150 ; H. Milne Edwards 1834: 86; Desbonne in Desbonne & Schramm 1867: 49.

Grapsus maculatus H. Milne Edwards, 1853: 167 , pl. 6, figs. 1– 1n.

Grapsus ornatus H. Milne Edwards, 1853: 168 .

Grapsus altifrons Stimpson, 1860: 230 .

Grapsus grapsus . — Rathbun 1897: 28; 1918: 227, pls. 53, 54; Nutting 1919: 78; Rathbun 1921: 77; 1924: 18; 1933: 86; 1936: 386; Chace 1956: 157; Monod 1956: 407, fig. 561; Chace & Hobbs 1969: 163, fig. 50; Rodríguez 1980: 376; Lemaitre 1981: 259; Abele & Kim 1986: 62; Melo 1996: 450; Carré 2005: 23; Garcia & Capote 2015: 17, figs. 8c—d; Poupin 2018: 224; Tavares & Mendonça 2022: 92.

Distribution. Western and Eastern Atlantic and Eastern Pacific: USA (Texas, Florida), Bermuda, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, St, Martin, St. Barthélemy, Guadeloupe, Isla de Aves, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, Old Providence, Barbados, Isla de Blanquilla, Isla de Margarita, Isla de Cubagua, Los Roques, Tortuga, Bonaire, Curaçao, Orchila, Trinidad, Colombia, and Brazil; Eastern Atlantic: Portugal to Angola, Cape Verde Islands, Azores, Ascension Island, and St. Helena Island; Eastern Pacific: Central Baja California to central Chile; Galapagos Islands, and Clipperton Islands ( Rathbun 1897; Abele & Kim 1986; Poupin 2018).

Material examined. Barbados, Port St. Charles , St. Peter, nearshore rubble, 13°15’51.81”N, 59°38’36.34”W, 1 ♀ (juv.) CW: 26.6 mm ( BLSZ 231 ) .

Remarks. Grapsus grapsus was caught by hand in the high intertidal splash zone. Grapsus grapsus is very difficult to collect and, although we were only able to collect one specimen during our study, this species is very abundant in Barbados and can always be seen on the same rock as Plagusia depressa ( Fabricius, 1775) . Grapsus grapsus is used as bait by local fishermen (N. Parasram, pers. obs.). Rathbun (1921: 77) reported specimens of Grapsus grapsus (three males, four females, USNM 74829) collected by the Barbados-Antigua Expedition in 1918. Additional specimens of Grapsus grapsus (one male, one ovigerous female, USNM 58051; 15 specimens, USNM 74828; 8 specimens, USNM 74883; two specimens, USNM 74886) were also collected by the Barbados-Antigua Expedition, however, Rathbun (1921) did not report these specimens. One female specimen was collected in 1927 by S.T. Brooks, who deposited it to the USNM (1513743).

Genus Pachygrapsus Randall, 1840

Figures

FIGURE 20. Superfamily Grapsoidea MacLeay, 1838, dorsal habitus: A, Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758), female (juv.), cw 26.6 mm (BLSZ 231); B, Pachygrapsus transversus (Gibbes, 1850), male, cw 10.2 mm (BLSZ 209); C, Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853), male, 20.8 mm (BLSZ 117); D, Plagusia depressa (Fabricius, 1775), female, cw 10.6 mm (MZUSP 40922). Scale bars = 20 mm.