Munidopsis depressa Faxon, 1893

Hendrickx, Michel E., 2012, Squat lobsters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Galatheoidea and Chirostyloidea) collected during the TALUD XIV cruise in the Gulf of California, Mexico, and rediscovery of Gastroptychus perarmatus (Haig, 1968) in the eastern Pacific, Zootaxa 3418, pp. 28-40 : 36-37

Munidopsis depressa Faxon, 1893

Munidopsis depressa Faxon, 1893: 189 ; 1895: 96, pl. XXII, figs 2, 2a, 2b. — Benedict 1902: 319. — Haig 1956: 79. — Luke 1977: 28 (catalogue). — Wicksten 1989: 315 (list). — Hendrickx & Harvey 1999: 376. — Hendrickx 1993b: 310 (table); 2011: 100, fig. 2; 2003b: 23. — Baba 2005: 282 (key), 288 (list). — Fierro et al. 2008: 7 (list). — Baba et al. 2008: 140 (list).

Material examined. TALUD XIV. St. 3 (28°16'03"N, 112°17'40"W), 7 Apr 2011, 3 males (CL 10.6–12.4 mm; CLr 14.7–16.3 mm), 914–925 m, benthic sledge (EMU-9279).

Remarks. Previously known from off California and from the Gulf of California (from ca 26°N south to off Tres Marias Islands). The present record extends the northernmost limit of M. depressa in the Gulf of California by over two degrees of latitude, to ca 28°16’N.

The recorded depth range of M. depressa in the Gulf of California is from 780 to 1300 m, just below the OMZ (Hendrickx 2003). As noted by Hendrickx & Serrano (2010), deep-water species occurring below the OMZ off western Mexico are unable to migrate to shallow water due to the physiological barrier formed by the OMZ and they form a distinct community, with no representative of the continental shelf community.