Sakaila japonica ( Sakai, 1963 )

Martin, Joel W., Godwin, Scott & Moffitt, Robert, 2009, Additions to the decapod crustacean fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, I. A review of the genus Sakaila Manning and Holthuis, 1981 (Decapoda, Brachyura, Aethridae), with the description of a new species from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Zootaxa 2018, pp. 25-44 : 40

Sakaila japonica ( Sakai, 1963)

This species was originally described based on two specimens, both females, one from Sakai-Hama, Kii Province, Japan, and one from off Mimase, Tosa Bay, Japan ( Sakai, 1963: 225). The depth was not given, although Sakai (1976: 291) listed it from 35 to 75 m. The holotype was described as a female (CL 39 mm, CW 51 mm). The species was also mentioned, and illustrated in color, in a volume of the crabs of Sagami Bay ( Sakai,1965: pl. 23, fig. 4), although the species is not known from this locality.There is some confusion as to the number and sex of the specimens examined by Sakai, possibly as a result of some errors in his earlier papers. Although originally ( Sakai, 1963) only the two above-mentioned females were described, Sakai later (1976: 291) listed four known specimens, adding to the above localities "off Toma Shimizu," and including the same color painting ( Sakai, 1976, plate 98, fig. 3) found in Sakai (1965). Three of the specimens listed by Sakai (1976), including the holotype, were referred to as males, however. Several specimens in Sakai’s collection were transferred to the Senckenberg Museum, a transfer that included all three known specimens of S. japonica . It seems likely that two of these specimens are the same as the first described by Sakai in 1963 since the label information matches well (M. Türkay, personal communication). There are nevertheless some discrepancies between the descriptions of these specimens by Sakai (1963, 1965, 1976) and the specimens at the Senckenberg. One Senckenberg specimen (SMF 24674) contains information that corresponds to that of the holotype, and that specimen is indeed a male ( Fig. 8). The CW however, is 29 mm, not 39 mm, as indicated by Sakai. This is in all probability the holotype. The second specimen originally described by Sakai, a female from Mimasa, Tosa Bay, is also in the Senckenberg Museum and bears the number (SMF 22451; M. Türkay, personal communication). There is also another smaller specimen at the Senckenberg that might be the third one described by Sakai (1976: 291) (SMF 30757; M. Türkay, pers. comm.). We have included here a photograph of SMF 24674, the presumed holotype, a male with CW 29 mm ( Fig. 8), as well as the specimen of the presumed female paratype ( Fig. 9) because these two specimens differ slightly in their overall carapace shape. The latter specimen (the female paratype, SMF 22451) is somewhat closer morphologically to our specimens of S. wanawana , especially the smaller male of S. wanawana . The lack of any smooth regions on the dorsal surface of the carapace immediately distinguishes the specimens of S. wanawana , however.