New records of the squat lobster genus Munidopsis Whiteaves, 1874 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Munidopsidae) from the deep sea off Taiwan

Abstract

Two species of the squat lobster family Munidopsidae, Munidopsis albatrossae Pequegnat & Pequegnat, 1973 and M. pycnopoda Baba, 2005, are reported from Taiwan for the first time based on specimens collected from lower bathyal depths. The Taiwanese material of M. pycnopoda also represents the first record of the species from the Pacific Ocean and greatly extends this species’ geographical range from the western Indian Ocean to western Pacific. The giant Munidopsis specimen from Taiwan is identified as M. albatrossae mainly by DNA barcoding even though M. albatrossae and M. aries (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880) are both morphologically and genetically extremely similar.