Charybdis (Charybdis) helleri (A. Milne-Edwards, 1867)

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 : 39

Charybdis (Charybdis) helleri (A. Milne-Edwards, 1867)

Persian Gulf. Kuwait ( Jones 1986a; Apel 2001), UAE ( Apel 2001); Iran ( Stephensen 1946; Naderloo & Sari 2007a).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Qeshm I. (Zeytun Park Beach, Dustku, Basaeedu), Bandar Abbas, Mahtabi, Bandar-Lengeh . Bushehr Province: Bushehr (Jofreh). Khuzestan Province: Bandar-Emam.

General distribution. Pantropical: South Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Socotra, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Mergui-Archipelago, Andaman Sea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines Singapore, Indonesia, Australia (Queensland), New Caledonia. This species is also recorded from Mediterranean, Caribbean coast of Colombia and the Atlantic coasts of Florida and Brazil to where it was introduced by shipping ( Campos & Türkay 1989).

Habitat. Intertidal rocky/cobble, sandy, muddy, coral reefs, in range of intertidal to 30 m.

Remarks. Charybdis helleri is one of the common portunid species occurring in the intertidal zone of the Persian Gulf. Naderloo (2005) recorded three different forms of the species from the Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf including 1- large specimens with posterior surface of carapace glabrous, 2- small specimens with glabrous carapace, 3- large specimens with posterior surface of the carapace covered with dense pubescence. These forms of carapace have also been recorded from Pakistan by Tirmizi & Kazmi (1996) and from Red Sea (Apel, personal comm.). There is no study proving information on an age- or size-related reason for pubescent/non-pubescent forms in this species. Apel & Spiridonov (1998) and Apel (2001) listed Stephensen’s (1946) record of Charybdis (Charybdis) lucifera from the Iranian waters under the synonymies of C. helleri .