Trapezia tigrina Eydoux & Souleyet, 1842

PETER CASTRO, PETER K. L. NG & SHANE T. AHYONG, 2004, Phylogeny and systematics of the Trapeziidae Miers, 1886 (Crustacea: Brachyura), with the description of a new family, Zootaxa 643, pp. 1-70 : 54

Trapezia tigrina Eydoux & Souleyet, 1842

Trapezia tigrina Eydoux & Souleyet, 1842: 232 , pl. 2, fig. 4 (colour) (see Plate 3E). Trapezia punctata Coulon, 1864: 569 .

Trapezia danae Ward, 1939: 13 , figs. 17, 18.

Trapezia wardi Serène, 1971: 140 .

Remarks. The identity of T. wardi Serène, 1971 (type locality Vietnam) and T. danae Ward, 1939 (type locality Samoa) with T. tigrina Eydoux & Souleyet, 1842 , is not in question (see Galil & Lewinsohn 1984: 166; Castro 1997b: 130). T. punctata Coulon, 1864 (type locality Red Sea) is almost certainly identical with T. tigrina , even if Coulon’s description is far too brief. What appears to be Coulon's type, a dried specimen, is in the zoology collections of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It carries the label " Trapezia rufopunctata Herb. " made by Coulon himself. This specimen was very likely used by Coulon in his description of T. punctata , but Coulon apparently realised later that there was an earlier name ( T. rufopunctata ) and his species was only a junior synonym (J.­P. Haenni, pers. comm. through M. Kottelat).

As T. tigrina and T. rufopunctata have very similar colour patterns, and as a result were frequently mistaken for each other, Coulon's eventual identification is not at all surprising. Since T. rufopunctata is not known from the Red Sea, Coulon's T. punctata should be T. tigrina instead. The colour description of T. punctata also fits better that of T. tigrina , orange dots (" points orange ", Coulon 1864: 569) rather than the distinctly larger spots of T. rufopunctata .