Raphidopus indicus Henderson, 1893

Naderloo, Reza & Türkay, Michael, 2012, Decapod crustaceans of the littoral and shallow sublittoral Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf: Faunistics, Biodiversity and Zoogeography 3374, Zootaxa 3374 (1), pp. 1-67 : 22-23

Raphidopus indicus Henderson, 1893

Persian Gulf. Iran ( Haig 1966; present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Qeshm I. (Basaeedu) . Bushehr Province: Bushehr (Jofreh), Kharg I .

General distribution. Northwestern Indian Ocean: Persian Gulf, India (Madras).

Habitat. The Danish Expedition material of the species was collected in the subtidal zone ranging from 7 to 50 m. depth, whereas during the present study it was collected in low-intertidal zone with rocky structure mixed with trapped muddy substrate.

Remarks. Raphidopus indicus was first briefly described by Henderson (1983). Haig (1966) reported this species from several stations in the northern Persian Gulf, Bushehr waters, collected by the Danish Expedition, 1937/38”, which was the first record of this species out of its type locality. In her work, Haig (1966) has compared Raphidopus indicus with its only congener, R. ciliatus Stimpson, 1858 , and has noticed some remarkable characters to distinguish these species from each other. She also remarked the presence of a tuberculated ridge on the upper surface of carpus of the cheliped and the presence of long hairs on the lateral sides of the carapace and the margins of the chelipeds and walking legs of the Persian Gulf material. Both of these characters were overlooked by Henderson (1893), while they are also seen in the present material. Furthermore, in the present specimens, the carpus of cheliped has four large spine-like teeth on the proximal half of the posterior margin, which was neither noticed by Henderson (1893) on the type material, nor by Haig (1966).