Glyptograpsidae, Schubart, Cuesta & Felder, 2002

GUINOT, DANIÈLE, TAVARES, MARCOS & CASTRO, PETER, 2013, Significance of the sexual openings and supplementary structures on the phylogeny of brachyuran crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura), with new nomina for higher-ranked podotreme taxa, Zootaxa 3665 (1), pp. 1-414 : 110

Family Glyptograpsidae

The male gonopore is sternal and it opens on sternite 8, rather far from the P5 coxa and from suture 7/8. In Glyptograpsus Smith, 1870 , the gonopore is limited posteriorly by a complete sulcus, which crosses sternite 8 and reaches (forming a small beak) the extremity of the elongated episternite 7 at a level markedly above the gynglyme receiving the P5 coxo-sternal condyle. Such a sulcus on sternite 8 is frequently found in male thoracotremes, and in Eriocheir sinensis it was referred to as “complete sulcus of sternite 8” ( Guinot 1979a: fig. 52F–J) as opposed to the genera where it is “incomplete” (e.g., Varuna ). A developed portion of sternite 8, appearing as a bipartite plate crossed by the sulcus, remains exposed only at the abdominal somites 2 and 3 levels, whereas abdominal somite 1 is laterally extended and covers the sternum. The penis consists of a relatively small, sclerotised portion and a wide translucid papilla. The same disposition is found in the second genus of the family, Platychirograpsus de Man, 1896 (N.K. Ng, Davie, Schubart & Ng 2007: fig. 4G).

The Glyptograpsidae (see Ng, Guinot & Davie 2008: 216) is supported by adult and larval morphologies, and DNA analyses ( Cuesta & Schubart 1998; Schubart et al. 2002, 2006; N.K. Ng, Davie, Schubart & Ng 2007; Schubart & Cuesta 2010). Another molecular analysis using 16S rDNA sequence data by Wetzer et al. (2009: 486, 487, fig. 1) also supported the monophyly of the family and its independent status.