Munida pherusa Macpherson and Baba, 1993

McCallum, Anna W., Ahyong, Shane T. & Andreakis, Nikos, 2021, New species of squat lobsters of the genus Munida from Australia, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 80, pp. 113-152 : 147

Munida pherusa Macpherson and Baba, 1993

Munida pherusa Macpherson and Baba, 1993: 408 , fig. 15 (type, locality: Philippines). — Baba et al., 2008: 112. — Baba et al., 2009: 178, figs 158–159. — Kim et al., 2016: 9, fig. 9 ( Korea, 112–117 m).

Material examined. Western Australia: NMV J55097 , 1 specimen, Ningaloo South , 22° 04.002' S, 113° 48.66' E to 22° 04.248' S, 113° 48.9' E, 101–106 m, SS10/2005/144, 10 December 2005 ; NMV J13307 , 9 ovigerous females (cl 7.7 mm, pcl 4.5 mm to cl 11.4 mm, pcl 7.3 mm), 2 females (cl 8.3 mm, pcl 4.9 mm; cl 9.1 mm, pcl 7.3 mm), 7 males (cl 7.3 mm, pcl 4.9 mm to cl 12.7 mm, pcl 7.7 mm), North-west Shelf , between Port Hedland and Dampier, 18° 50' S, 117° 39' E to 18° 50' S, 117° 39' E, 178 m, NWA stn 29, 6 June 1983 .

Remarks. In addition to one specimen of M. pherusa collected in 2005 in north-western Australia, another 17 specimens are reported here from a survey of the North-West Shelf in 1983. The specimens show that the length of the disto-mesial spine on antennal article 2 is slightly variable in length, sometimes just reaching the end of the peduncle and in some specimens, including the holotype, it slightly overreaches the peduncle. In the illustrated holotype, the cheliped finger is distinctly shorter that the palm, while in all of our specimens, the cheliped finger and palm are subequal in length.

These are the first records of M. pherusa from Australia.

Distribution. Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, 73– 167 m. North-western Australia, 101– 178 m.