Diogenes klaasi Rahayu & Forest, 1995

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 : 27

Diogenes klaasi Rahayu & Forest, 1995

Persian Gulf. Iran (Moradmand 2007; Naderloo et al. 2012, in press; present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Bandar-Abbas, Mahtabi.

General distribution. Indian Ocean: Persian Gulf, Pakistan, western Thailand, Indonesia.

Habitat. Muddy-sand intertidal, oyster bank.

Remarks. Diogenes klaasi belongs to the Diogenes avarus species-group by having a smooth intercalated process and possessing a small spine distally on the fourth antennal segment. Due to some variations of the specimens, discriminating the three closely related species of the group, namely D. avarus , D. karwarensis and D. klaasi is not easily possible. Moradmand (2007) recorded Diogenes sp. from Mahtabi at the Iranian coast. He could not distinctly identify the species, even though he discussed that the species is closely related to Diogenes klaasi Rahayu & Forest, 1995 , rather than any other congeners. He has mentioned several differences between the Persian Gulf specimens and description and illustrations provided by ( Rahayu & Forest 1995; Siddiqui et al. 2004). We collected two males from a muddy-sand flat of Bandar-Abbas that are distinctly similar with D. klaasi described by Rahayu & Forest (1995). Moradmand’s (2007) specimens are relatively small-sized, so the variations cited by him could be considered as growth-dependent variation. However, the three species of the D. avarus species-group need to be studied in detail using modern taxonomic methods.