A collection of crabs (Crustacea, Brachyura) from the southwestern coast of India, with a discussion of the systematic position of Nectopanope Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891 (Euryplacidae)

Abstract

A report on the brachyuran crabs collected from the southwestern coast of India by the Indian research vessel FORV Sagar Sampada is presented. The material consists of 13 species from three genera and five families, of which four are new records for India: Heteroplax maldivensis (Rathbun, 1902) (Euryplacidae), Cryptopodia collifer Flipse, 1930 (Parthenopidae), Thalamita macrodonta Borradaile, 1903 (Portunidae), and Paraxanthodes cumatodes (MacGilchrist, 1905) (Xanthidae). The cruise also obtained the first known male of Nectopanope rhodobaphes Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891 (type species of Nectopanope Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason & Alcock, 1891), and its characters show that it is in fact a member of the Euryplacidae Stimpson, 1871. The genus had previously been incorrectly classified in the Xanthidae MacLeay, 1838.