Paraxanthodes cumatodes (MacGilchrist, 1905)

Ng, Peter K. L., Priyaja, P., Kumar, A. Biju & Devi, S. Suvarna, 2019, A collection of crabs (Crustacea, Brachyura) from the southwestern coast of India, with a discussion of the systematic position of Nectopanope Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891 (Euryplacidae), ZooKeys 818, pp. 1-24 : 14

Paraxanthodes cumatodes (MacGilchrist, 1905) Figs 6G, H, 7 N–P

Xanthodes cumatodes MacGilchrist, 1905: 205; Alcock et al. 1907: pl. 79 fig. 1, 1A.

Xanthias cumatodes : Balss 1929: 24; Stephensen 1946: 148.

Paraxanthodes cumatodes : Guinot 1968: 723, fig. 60; Guinot 1971: 1069; Serène 1968: 77; Serène 1984: 209, pl. 30 fig. C; Ng et al. 2008: 204 (list); Mendoza et al. 2012: 3, fig. 1 D–F, 2 E–I.

Material examined.

1 male (8.3 × 5.5 mm), 8°58.270'N, 76°17.365'E, 50 m.

Remarks.

The taxonomic problems associated with Paraxanthodes Guinot, 1968, and the allied genera Monodaeus Guinot, 1967, and Medaeops Guinot, 1967, and Takedax Mendoza & Ng, 2012, as well the generic affinities of species previously classified in these taxa have been discussed at length by Lai et al. (2011) and Mendoza and Ng (2012). While the genera are distinct at the genetic level, the available morphological characters are not always reliable; and work is still ongoing to clarify their affinities. Mendoza et al. (2012) discussed the generic position of P. cumatodes , and suggested that it may not be congeneric with P. obtusidens (Sakai, 1965), the type species of Paraxanthodes .

We refer the present specimen to P. cumatodes , described from the western Indian Ocean by MacGilchrist (1905), with doubt because of its relatively small size. It differs from typical P. cumatodes (see Alcock and Annandale 1907: pl. 79, fig. 1, 1A; Guinot 1968: fig. 60; Serène 1984: pl. 30C; Mendoza et al. 2012: fig. 1 D–F) in having the carapace proportionately less broad, the grooves and ridges on the dorsal carapace surface less prominent and the grooves on the thoracic sternum relatively shallower (Fig. 6G, H). The G1 of the present specimen is developed and its structure agrees relatively well with that figured by Mendoza et al. (2012: fig. 2E, G–I) for P. cumatodes , except that the distal half is more gently curved and the distal setae less dense (Fig. 7N, O).