A new large oregoniid spider crab of the genus Pleistacantha Miers, 1879, from the Bay of Bengal, India (Crustacea, Brachyura, Majoidea)

Abstract

A new species of deep-water oregoniid spider crab of the genus Pleistacantha Miers, 1879, is described from the Indian Ocean. The species is distinct in possessing a prominently inflated carapace in which the median parts of the branchial regions almost meet. It can also be distinguished from its closest congeners, P. moseleyi (Miers, 1885), P. pungens (Wood-Mason, in Wood-Mason and Alcock 1891), and P. ori Ahyong & Ng, 2007, in its more elongate and less spinose chelipeds and ambulatory legs, shorter third maxilliped, trapezoidal male pleon and a male first gonopod which is relatively stout with a short subdistal dorsal papilla.