Megalobrachium smithi ( Glassell, 1936 )

Ferreira, Luciane Augusto De Azevedo & Anker, Arthur, 2021, An annotated and illustrated checklist of the porcelain crabs of Panama (Decapoda: Anomura), Zootaxa 5045 (1), pp. 1-154 : 36

Megalobrachium smithi ( Glassell, 1936)

Pisosoma smithi Glassell 1936: 286 .

Pisonella smithi . — Glassell 1938: 437, 442.

Megalobrachium smithi . — Chace 1942: 100; Haig 1960: 215, pl. 16, fig. 5, pl. 39, fig. 2; Gore & Abele 1976: 17; Hiller & Lessios 2019: 414, fig. 1j.

Material examined. None.

Previous records from Panama. Gore & Abele (1976).

Distribution. East Pacific: Mexico and Panama (Las Perlas Is.) ( Gore & Abele 1976).

Ecology. Mainly intertidal; usually on sandy bottom under rocks or within corals ( Haig 1960; Gore & Abele 1976).

Remarks. According to Glassell (1936), M. smithi is remarkably similar to the eastern Pacific M. sinuimanus , for instance, in the ornamentation of the carapace, the general format of P1 and configuration of the carinae on the palm, as well as the telson composed of seven plates. However, in M. smithi , the carapace is flattened (not swollen as in M. sinuimanus ; the eyes are largely visible dorsally (vs. partly concealed in M. sinuimanus ); the mesial margin of the P1 carpus is more developed; and the P2–P4 are more elongate than in M. sinuimanus . Interestingly, based on molecular data, the two species do not seem to be closely related (Hiller & Lessios 2019).