Ilyograpsus rhizophorae Barnard, 1955

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 : 51

Ilyograpsus rhizophorae Barnard, 1955

Persian Gulf. Kuwait [Jones (1906a) as Ilyograpsus paludicola (Rathbun, 1909) ], Saudi Arabia [ Basson et al. (1977) and Apel (1996, 2001), as I. paludicola (Rathbun, 1909) ], UAE [ Al-Ghais & Cooper (1996) and Hornby (1997) as I. paludicola (Rathbun, 1909) ], Iran (Naderloo et al. 2011; present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: Bandar-Tiab, Qeshm I. (five stations along the south coast), Bandar-Abbas, Bandar-Khamir . Bushehr Province: Khalij-Nayband, Bandar-Rig, Bavirat. Khuzestan Province: Hendijan, Mahshahr (mangroves of Majidieh Fishery Jetty).

General distribution. Western Indian Ocean: East Africa, Madagascar, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Pakistan.

Habitat. Muddy intertidal, mangroves.

Remarks. Ilyograpsus paludicola (Rathbun, 1909) has been frequently recorded from the Persian Gulf and the adjacent waters ( Basson et al. 1977; Titgen 1982; Jones 1986a; Vousden 1987; Ismail & Ahmed 1993; Hywel- Davies 1994; Apel 1996; Al-Ghais & Cooper 1996; Tirmizi & Ghani 1996; Hornby 1997; Apel & Türkay 1999; Apel 2001). Naderloo et al. (2011) mentioned that all the records of the Ilyograpsus species from the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters are a misidentification of I. rhizophorae . They discussed that I. rhizophorae is distributed in the Western Indian Ocean, whereas I. paludicola is a Indo-West Pacific species distributed westwards till Thailand. For detailed taxonomic discussion see Naderloo et al. (2011).