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Type: Articles
Published: 2006-04-06
Page range: 1–20
Abstract views: 40
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Eriocheir ogasawaraensis Komai, a new species of mitten crab (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Varunidae) from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, with notes on the systematics of Eriocheir De Haan, 1835

Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba, 955-2 Aoba-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8682 Japan
Department of Marine Bioscience, Faculty of Marine Science, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8477 Japan
3-36-36-404 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-0053 Japan
Ogasawara Fishery Center, Kiyose, Chichi-jima, Ogasawara, Tokyo, 100-2101 Japan
Department of Marine Bioscience, Faculty of Marine Science, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8477 Japan
Crustacea Decapoda Brachyura Varunidae Eriocheir new species Ogasawara Islands Japan

Abstract

A new mitten crab species of the genus Eriocheir De Haan, 1835, E. ogasawaraensis n. sp., is described from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. It is morphologically most similar to E. japonica (De Haan, 1835), found on the Japanese mainland, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Russian Far East, Korea and China, but diagnostic is the proportionately broader and dorsally flattened carapace which usually lacks the fourth anterolateral tooth, the ornamentation of the epistome, the male first gonopod and its the coloration. The biology of the new species and the different interpretations concerning the systematics of Eriocheir are briefly discussed.

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