Three new species of squat lobsters of the genus Munidopsis Whiteaves, 1874, from Guadeloupe Island, Caribbean Sea (Crustacea, Decapoda, Munidopsidae)

Abstract

The genus Munidopsis is one of the most diverse genera within squat lobsters. Here, three new species of Munidopsis, M. cornuata n. sp., M. senticosa n. sp., and M. turgida n. sp., from <500 m off Guadeloupe Island (Caribbean Sea), are fully described and illustrated. Among the Atlantic species of the genus, M. cornuata n. sp. belongs to the group of species having the dorsal surface of the carapace with spines and is most similar to M. robusta (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880), from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Munidopsis senticosa n. sp. resembles M. barbarae (Boone, 1927) from the Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico and M. penescabra Pequegnat & Williams 1995, from off Georgia and Gulf of Mexico; the three species belong to the group having the carapace covered with sharp spines. Finally, M. turgida n. sp. is characterized by having the dorsal surface of the carapace, abdomen and pereiopods covered by granules; and resembles M. granulens Mayo, 1972, from NW Caribbean Sea. Apart from the morphological evidence, the analysis of mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S) supports establishing these new species, showing very high genetic divergences compared to their congeners (from 14.5 to 17% for COI, and 7.7 to 12.8% for 16S data).

Munidopsis species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Munidopsidae) from carcass falls in Weijia Guyot, West Pacific, with recognition of a new species based on integrative taxonomy

“…Milne Edwards, 1880) group and associated with chemosynthetic environments (Ahyong, Andreakis & Taylor, 2011). Two morphologically distinct species, M. barbarae (Boone, 1927) and M. corniculata Rodríguez-Flores, Macpherson & Machordom, 2018, were chosen for comparative analysis, and Shinkaia crosnieri Baba & Williams, 1998 was selected as the outgroup in the phylogenetic study.…”

“…In addition to morphological analysis, we performed a barcoding analysis using sequences of the mtCOI gene to help the identification of specimens. Meanwhile, we selected a group of Munidopsis species morphologically similar to our specimens for phylogenetic analysis, most of which have mesial eyespines, relatively short P1 and triangular rostrum, and are generally associated with chemosynthetic environments (Baba & De Saint Laurent, 1992; Jones & Macpherson, 2007; Cubelio et al, 2007; Coykendall, Nizinski & Morrison, 2017; Rodríguez-Flores, Macpherson & Machordom, 2018). In the present article, we combined the morphological with molecular methods in an attempt to clarify the systematic status of the present species from Weijia Guyot and assess their phylogenetic relationships with other congeners.…”

Systematics of 12 Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Paleogene squat lobster taxa (Galatheoidea)

“…Whereas the fossil record of galatheoids relies heavily on internal molds and carapace specimens with cuticle preserved, external molds are often not collected. A substantial part of extant galatheoids show spines on multiple carapace regions, which are used to diagnose taxa (Baba et al, 2009; Macpherson and Robainas-Barcia, 2015; Rodríguez-Flores et al, 2018; Schnabel and Ahyong, 2019). The discovery of Protomunida eurekantha n. sp.…”

Cosmopolitan abyssal lineages? A systematic study of East Pacific deep-sea squat lobsters (Decapoda: Galatheoidea: Munidopsidae)

“…Additional species are added nearly every year (e.g. Rodríguez-Flores et al 2018, 2022aDong et al 2019Marin 2020), suggesting that a great deal of diversity remains to be discovered. Munidopsids occur in deep-sea benthos across a latitudinal gradient in both hemispheres (Baba 2005) but few records are attributed to Antarctic waters (García Raso et al 2008).…”