Eriphia gonagra ( Fabricius, 1781 )

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 : 14

Eriphia gonagra ( Fabricius, 1781)

( Fig. 5B )

Cancer gonagra Fabricius, 1781: 505 [type-locality: Jamaica; type in Zoological Museum of Kiel University ]; Herbst 1788: 238.

Eriphia armata Dana, 1852: 248 , pl.14, fig. 6a; Miers 1886: 162.

Eriphia gonagra . —Desbonne in Desbonne & Schramm, 1867: 26; A. Milne-Edwards 1873: 338; Rathbun 1897: 21; 1920: 23; 1921: 75; 1924: 16; 1930: 545, fig. 83, pl. 222; 1933: 75; 1936: 386; Holthuis, 1959: 76; Williams 1965: 182, figs. 164 a–c; Coelho & Ramos 1972: 192; Felder 1973: 64, fig. 5; Powers 1977: 90; Rodríguez 1980: 370; Williams 1984: 419–420, figs. 332, 333 a–c; Melo 1996: 346, unnumbered fig.; Boschi 2000: 80; Nizinski 2003: 137; Carré 2005: 23; Koh & Ng 2008: 330 , figs. 2, 3D–F; Ng et al. 2008: 63; Boos et al. 2012: 1028; García & Capote 2015: 5, figs. 3 e–g; Mantelatto et al. 2020: 17 , fig. 4a.

Distribution. Western Atlantic: USA (North Carolina), Bermuda, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, St. Martin, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Isla de Aves, Barbados, Trinidad, Isla de Margarita, Isla de Cubagua, Tortuga, Bonaire, Curaçao, Aruba, Argentina, and Patagonia ( Rathbun 1897; Williams 1984; García & Capote 2015; Poupin 2018).

Material examined. Barbados, Drill Hall , St. Michael, nearshore rubble, 13°04’36.30”N, 59°36’26.63”W, 1 Ô CW: 19.1 mm ( BLSZ 137 ) . Idem , 1 ♀ CW: 23.7 mm ( BLSZ 152 ) . Idem , 1 ♀ CW: 21.1 mm ( BLSZ 243 ) . Idem , 1 Ô CW: 10.9 mm ( MZUSP 40881 ) .

Remarks. Specimens of Eriphia gonagra were collected in nearshore rubble habitat at low tide. Crabs were seen hiding under rocks and within rock crevices. Ovigerous females and mating pairs were seen in November 2019. Eriphia gonagra is very abundant in nearshore rubble habitats on the east, south, and west coasts of Barbados and can often be seen under the same rubble rock as Pachygrapsus transversus ( Gibbes, 1850) . One female specimen of Eriphia gonagra (USNM 14884) was collected from Barbados by the U.S. Eclipse Expedition to Africa (1890). Rathbun (1921: 75) reported specimens of Eriphia gonagra (five males (one juvenile), and 13 females (4 ovigerous); (USNM 76248, 76249, 57998, 57999, 7625, 75069, 75036, 62514) from Barbados that were collected during the Barbados-Antigua Expedition in 1918 and the Smithsonian-Hartford Expedition in 1937. Jones (1968a: 158) reported the species Eriphia gonagra and Eriphia squamata Stimpson, 1859 . The latter record is doubtful; Jones did not deposit any specimens of Eriphia squamata in the Barbados Museum or at any other institution and our study did not collect any specimens of Eriphia squamata .

Figures

FIGURE 5. Superfamilies Calappoidea De Haan, 1883 and Eriphioidea MacLeay, 1838, dorsal habitus: A, Calappa ocellata Holthuis, 1958 (BLSZ 118), female, cw 74.3 mm; B, Eriphia gonagra (Fabricius, 1781), female (juv.), cw 21.1 mm (BLSZ 243). Scale bars: 20 mm.