A review of the New Zealand Chirostylidae (Anomura: Galatheoidea) with description of six new species from the Kermadec Islands

Abstract

Prior to the present study, seven species of deep‐sea Chirostylidae (‘squat lobsters’), were known from New Zealand: Gastroptychus novaezelandiae, Uroptychodes spinimarginatus, Uroptychus australis, Uroptychus maori, Uroptychus novaezelandiae, Uroptychus politus, and Uroptychus tomentosus. All species are examined from type material and discussed, original illustrations supplemented, and new records provided where available. Uroptychus maori and Uroptychus novaezelandiae are re‐described. The chirostylid fauna of the Kermadec Islands, a remote group of islands north‐east of New Zealand, is studied. Uroptychus alcocki and Uroptychus scambus are reported for the first time from New Zealand, and six new species of the genus Uroptychus are described. Distributional patterns of New Zealand species are discussed and a key to New Zealand Uroptychus species is presented. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 155, 542–582.

Sexual dimorphism in the methane seep-dwelling Costa Rican yeti crab Kiwa puravida (Decapoda: Anomura: Kiwaidae)

“…Results suggest that the claws of male yeti crabs are larger and therefore under sexual selection, perhaps representing an advantage for reproduction (Andersson and Simmons, 2006;Jones and Ratterman, 2009;Shuker and Kvarnemo, 2021). Similar patterns of claw sexual dimorphism have been reported for species of Chrisostyloidea squat lobsters such as Uroptychus alcocki and Uroptychus scambus (Schnabel, 2009), and other deep-sea anomurans including Cervimunida johni (Lezcano et al, 2015), Munida intermedia (Mori et al, 2004), Munida iris (Williams and Brown, 1972), Munida microphtalma (Kassuga et al, 2008), Munida rugosa (Claverie and Smith, 2007;Claverie and Smith, 2010), Munidopsis erinacea (Tavares and Campinho, 1998), Munidopsis kaiyoae (Schnabel and Bruce, 2006), Munidopsis scobina (Creasey et al, 2000), Munidopsis sigsbei (Tavares and Campinho, 1998), Munidopsis papanui (Schnabel and Bruce, 2006), Pleuroncodes monodon (Lezcano et al, 2015), and Shinkaia crosnieri (Tsuchida et al, 2003). Although this is the first time that sexual dimorphism in weaponry is tested for yeti crabs in the family Kiwaidae, studies conducted on Kiwa tyleri from the Southern Ocean hydrothermal vent fields found that males have larger carapace length than females, and also reported that sexual dimorphism of the claw is apparent in this species, but this was not tested (Marsh et al, 2015;Thatje et al, 2015a).…”

Squat lobster assemblages on seamounts differ from some, but not all, deep‐sea habitats of comparable depth

“…(iv) Collections from the New Zealand region made primarily by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and its predecessor the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, plus miscellaneous collections in the Dominion Museum, now the National Museum Te Papa Tongarewa, made by Victoria University of Wellington, and the Portobello Marine Laboratory (University of Otago) since 1956 ( e.g. Vereshchaka 2005; Schnabel & Bruce 2006; Schnabel 2009b) (1701 records). (v) Records from the 2003 NORFANZ voyage to the mid‐Tasman Sea, a collaborative sea‐floor survey between Australian and New Zealand institutions (National Oceans Office, CSIRO Marine Research, Australia, New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries and NIWA (Ahyong 2007) (33 records).…”

A new classification of the Chirostyloidea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura)

“…The family Chirostylidae currently includes seven genera and over 200 species worldwide (Baba 2009;Schnabel 2009). The chirostylid genera fall into two, apparently natural, groups.…”