Austrolepidopa, EFFORD AND HAIG, 1968

BOYKO, CHRISTOPHER B., 2002, A Worldwide Revision Of The Recent And Fossil Sand Crabs Of The Albuneidae Stimpson And Blepharipodidae, New Family (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Hippoidea), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2002 (272), pp. 1-396 : 57

AUSTROLEPIDOPA EFFORD AND HAIG, 1968

Austrolepidopa Efford and Haig, 1968: 898 . – Haig, 1974: 449 (list). – Coêlho and Calado, 1987: 43, table 1. – Calado, 1995: 85–86. – Boyko and Harvey, 1999: 382, 401 (key).

DIAGNOSIS: Carapace approximately as wide as long, anterior margin armed with low spines. Rostrum produced and truncated. Distal peduncular segment flattened, tapering. Antennular dorsal flagellum with 46–90 articles, ventral flagellum with 2–4 articles. Antennal segment I unarmed; flagellum with seven or eight articles. Maxilliped II exopod with flagellum. Abdominal somite V pleura well calcified. Telson of male elongate ovate, evenly but weakly calcified.

DISTRIBUTION: Known only from Western Australia, Queensland, Australia, and New Caledonia.

TYPE SPECIES: Austrolepidopa schmitti Efford and Haig, 1968 , by original designation.

INCLUDED SPECIES: A. schmitti Efford and Haig, 1968 ; A. trigonops Efford and Haig, 1968 ; A. caledonia Boyko and Harvey, 1999 .

REMARKS: As first pointed out by Boyko and Harvey (1999), Efford and Haig (1968) incorrectly identified males of this genus as females. Like all members of the Lepidopinae , the males of Austrolepidopa species possess pores on the coxae of pereopods III and V, and males of two of the three species also have small, budlike pleopods. Females have gonopores on the coxae of pereopods III and long pleopods. All three species of Austrolepidopa have a glossy, porcelainlike quality and are easily damaged if handled roughly.

The range of this genus would be extended to New South Wales, Australia, if cataloged specimens purported to belong to Austrolepidopa could be located in the AM (see un­ der A. schmitti ).

This genus is the sister taxon to all other genera in the Lepidopinae .