Mursia aspera Alcock, 1899

Muñoz, Isabel, García-Isarch, Eva & Cuesta, Jose A., 2021, Annotated and updated checklist of marine crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) of Mozambique supported by morphological and molecular data from shelf and slope species of the “ MOZAMBIQUE ” surveys, Zootaxa 5056 (1), pp. 1-67 : 21

Mursia aspera Alcock, 1899

( Figure 4F )

Material examined. M07, Stn. 70, 519m, ♀ 62.5× 45.6mm (IEO-CD-MZ07/1903), 16S ( MZ 424926 ) .

Habitat and distribution. Mursia aspera is distributed off Madagascar, the Seychelles, and Maldives ( Galil 1993), between 150 and 384m depth and in Japan, at a depth range of 200–250m ( Sakai 1965).

Results and remarks. Only one specimen was collected in M07, at 519m, off Inhambane. This specimen agrees well with the descriptions and figures of Galil (1993) and Spiridonov & Apel (2007). This is the first record of the species in Mozambican waters that also expands the maximum depth range of the species worldwide, from 384 to 519m.

Colouration observed. Pictures of fresh specimens are not available.

DNA barcodes. Only a 16S sequence (530 bp) was obtained, this being the first DNA sequence for the species, since there is not any other sequence on any public database.

Figures

FIGURE 4. A, Lyreidus brevifrons, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ08/1771; B, Raninoides crosnieri, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ07/1910; C, Calappa africana, ♀ IEO-CD-MZ08/1815; D, C. africana, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ08/1797; E, Mursia africana, ♂, IEO-CD-MZ08/1797; F, Mursia aspera, ♂ IEO-CD-MZ07/1903 (preserved); G, Mursia flamma, ♀ IEO-CD-MZ07/1904; H, Mursia sp, ♂ IEO-CD- MZ09/1775. Scale bars: 1cm.