The Atlantic gall crabs, family Cryptochiridae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura)

Abstract

Kropp, Roy K., and Raymond B. Manning. The Atlantic Gall Crabs, Family Cryptochiridae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 462, 21 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, 1987.-The Atlantic cryptochirids comprise four species in four different genera. One new species and three new genera are named. Troglocarcinus corallicola Verrill, 1908, shows an amphi-Atlantic distribution and is a generalist insofar as coral host is concerned. Pseudocryptochirus hypostegus Shaw and Hopkins, 1977, is assigned to a new genus, Opecarcinus, the only genus known in the Atlantic that also is represented in the Pacific. It ranges from the western Atlantic to Ascension Island and lives on agariciid and siderastreid corals. Troglocarcinus balssi Monod, 1956, is assigned to a new genus, Detocarcinus. It is restricted to the eastern Atlantic and lives on rhizangiid, oculinid, caryophyllid, and dendrophyllid corals. A new genus and species, Cecidocarcinus brychius, is named for specimens taken on dendrophyllid corals from the Valdivia Ridge, southeastern Atlantic, in 512 meters; it is the deepest occurring cryptochirid. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATA is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution's Annual Report, Smithsonian Year. SERIES COVER DESIGN: The coral Montastrea cavernosa (Linnaeus).

A new species of Opecarcinus Kropp & Manning, 1987 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Cryptochiridae) associated with the stony corals Pavona clavus (Dana, 1846) and P. bipartita Nemenzo, 1980 (Scleractinia: Agariciidae)

“…), and have been recorded from corals belonging to several genera of the scleractinian family Agariciidae (Kropp 1989). In the western Atlantic, Scott (1985Scott ( , 1987 and Johnsson et al (2006) recorded O. hypostegus from the genera Agaricia (family Agariciidae) and Siderastrea (family Siderastreidae), in contrast to Kropp & Manning (1987) and Van der Meij (2014) who recorded O. hypostegus only from Agaricia.…”

“…Opecarcinus Kropp & Manning, 1987 Opecarcinus cathyae sp. nov. (Figs 1A-E Description female holotype Carapace vase-shaped, CL 1.4 CW; widest posterior to midlength; anterior third of carapace deflected by about 40°, not sharply set off from posterior carapace, with shallow transverse depression across protogastric region; dorsal surface convex in lateral view, median third concave with scattered small conical tubercles.…”

“…Gall crabs belonging to the genus Opecarcinus Kropp & Manning, 1987, have been found to inhabit these large colonies in high densities (Hoeksema & van der Meij 2013) and eight species are now recognised in the genus (cf. Ng et al 2008).…”

“…Ng et al 2008). Opecarcinus was established by Kropp & Manning (1987) to accommodate the Atlantic Pseudocryptochirus hypostegus Shaw &Hopkins, 1977, andCryptochirus crescentus Edmonson, 1925, from the Pacific. An additional five species of Opecarcinus were described by Kropp (1989), who also removed O. granulatus from the synonymy of O. crescentus.…”

Investigating the Driving Mechanisms Behind Differences in Bleaching and Disease Susceptibility Between Two Scleractinian Corals, Pseudodiploria Strigosa and Diploria Labyrinthiformis

“…The crabs isolated from the original P. strigosa coral fragment were identified as being in the Cryptochiridae family (Kropp and Manning, 1987 …”