Petrolisthes boscii (Audouin, 1826)

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 : 20

Petrolisthes boscii (Audouin, 1826)

Persian Gulf. Kuwait ( Motoh 1975), Saudi Arabia ( Apel 2001), UAE ( Titgen 1982; Apel 2001), Iran ( Haig 1966, present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Qeshm I. (Zeytun Park Beach, Dargahan, Basaeedu, Dustku) . Bushehr Province: Bushehr (Jofreh), Kharg I .

General distribution. Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Pakistan, Gulf of Manaar, Mergui-Archipelago, Gulf of Thailand, Indonesia, Australia (Western Australia, Queensland).

Habitat. Rocky/cobble intertidal.

Remarks. This species is widely distributed in the Indo-west Pacific. In the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, it is one of the common porcellanid crabs in the high intertidal zone with rocky and stony structure. Petrolisthes boscii has sometimes taxonomically been confused with P. moluccensis (e.g. Nobili 1906a), but as Haig (1966) mentioned, it is clearly different from the latter by having short setae on the inner side of the fingers, and by lacking spines on the anterior margin of walking legs. Adults differ from young specimens (CL <6 mm) in two following characters: strata on carapace and appendages are prominently shorter and usually squamiform (Paul’son 1975: 93–94); the front of adults is clearly broader than long and triangular.