Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5696 No. 1: 23 Sept. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-09-23
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5696.1.8
Page range: 124-132
Abstract views: 81
PDF downloaded: 4

On the taxonomy of a sesarmid crab, Sesarma lanatum Alcock, 1900 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Sesarmidae) from India

Department of Zoology; Faculty of Science; The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda; Vadodara-390002 Gujarat.
Tropical Marine Science Institute; National University of Singapore; 18 Kent Ridge Road; Singapore 119227; Republic of Singapore.
Zoological Survey of India; F.P.S. Building; 27 J. L. Nehru Road; Kolkata\x123700016; West Bengal; India.
Animal Taxonomy and Ecology Laboratory; Department of Life Sciences; Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University; Patan\x12384265; Gujarat; India.
Crustacea Range extension Sesarmidae Sesarma lanatum taxonomy India Pakistan Maharashtra Karachi

Abstract

The sesarmid crab, Sesarma lanatum Alcock, 1900, is originally described from Pakistan and India. Previous studies have suggested that S. lanatum should be placed under the genus Clistocoeloma, but its morphological affinities with the genus have not been discussed in detail. In the present study, we examined the existing syntype female and fresh specimens of S. lanatum collected from Gujarat state; the specimens show full agreement with the generic characters of Clistocoeloma. To stabilize the taxonomy of the species, S. lanatum is confirmed as a species of Clistocoeloma and the syntype female specimen is designated as the lectotype to fix the identity of the species. The present study provides detailed redescription and illustrations of C. lanatum based on the lectotype and other specimens, and its taxonomic affinities with closely related species have been discussed.

 

References

  1. Abraham, K.M. & Prakasan, A.K. (2020) Checklist of brachyuran mangrove crabs of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 12, 17153–17160. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4429.12.15.17153-17160
  2. Alcock, A. (1900) Materials for a carcinological fauna of India. No. 6. The Brachyura Catometopa, or Grapsoidea. Journal on the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 69 (2), 279–456. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.15344
  3. De Man, J.G. (1888) Report on the podophthalmous Crustacea of the Mergui Archipelago, collected for the trustees of the Indian museum, Calcutta, by Dr. John Anderson F.R.S., Superintendent of the Museum. Journal of the Linnean Society, London, Zoology, 22 (139), 177–240, pl. 13–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1888.tb00031.x
  4. Dineshbabu, A.P., Durgekar, R.N. & Zacharia, P.U. (2011) Estuarine & marine Decapods of Karnataka inventory. Fishing Chimes, 30, 20–24.
  5. Edmondson, C.H. (1951) Some Central Pacific crustaceans. Occasional Papers of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 20 (13), 183–243.
  6. Komai, T., Nagai, T., Yogi, A., Naruse, T., Fujita, Y. & Shokita, S. (2004) New Records of Four Grapsoid Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) from Japan, with Notes on Four Rare Species. Natural History Research, 8 (1), 33–63.
  7. Lee, B.Y., Ng, N.K. & Ng, P.K.L. (2013) On the identity of Clistocoeloma balansae A. Milne-Edwards, 1873, and C. tectum (Rathbun, 1914), with description of a new species from the West Pacific (Crustacea: Decapoda: Sesarmidae). Zootaxa, 3641 (4), 420–432. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3641.4.8
  8. Lee, B.Y., Ng, N.K. & Ng, P.K.L. (2023) On the identities of the sesarmid crabs, Sesarma villosum A. Milne-Edwards, 1869, and Clistocoeloma suvaense Edmondson, 1951, with the description of a new species from the West Pacific (Decapoda, Brachyura, Thoracotremata). Zootaxa, 5318 (2), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5318.2.3
  9. Milne-Edwards, A. (1869) Notes sur quelques nouvelles espèces de genre Sesarma. Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 5, 25–31.
  10. Milne-Edwards, A. (1873) Recherches sur la faune carcinologique de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Deuxième Partie. Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, 9, 155–332, pls. 4–18. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.10410
  11. Ng, P.K.L., Guinot, D. & Davie, P.J.F. (2008) Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant brachyuran crabs of the world. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 17, 1–286.
  12. Poore, G.C.B. & Ahyong, S.T. (2023) Marine decapod Crustacea: a guide to the families and genera of the world. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, xii + 916 pp. https://doi.org/10.1071/9781486311798
  13. Rahayu, D.L. & Takeda, M. (2000) A new species of the genus Clistocoeloma (Crustacea: Decapoda: Grapsidae) from Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Bulletin of the National Science Museum, Tokyo, Series A, 26 (2), 35–41.
  14. Serène, R. (1968) The Brachyura of the Indo-West Pacific region. In: Prodromus for a check list of the Non-Planctonic Marine Fauna of South East Asia. Singapore National Academy of Science, Special Publication, No. 1. Fauna IIICc3. UNESCO Singapore, Singapore, pp. 33–112.
  15. Shen, C.J. (1933) Description of a new species of crab of the genus Clistocoeloma from China. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 10, 12 (67), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933308673750
  16. Shet, G.N., Subash Chandran, M.D. & Ramachandra, T.V. (2016) Brachyuran crabs of Aghanashini Estuary, south Indian west coast, Karnataka. Proceedings of the Lake 2016: Conference on conservation and sustainable management of ecologically sensitive regions, Western Ghats, 2016, 1–17.
  17. Tesch, J.J. (1917) Synopsis of the genera Sesarma, Metasesarma, Sarmatium and Clistocoeloma, with a key to the determination of the Indo-Pacific species. Zoologische Mededelingen, Leiden, 3 (2–3), 127–260, pls. 15–17. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.10640
  18. Trivedi, J.N., Trivedi, D.J., Vachhrajani, K.D. & Ng, P.K.L. (2018) An annotated checklist of the marine brachyuran crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) of India. Zootaxa, 4502 (1), 1–83. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4502.1.1

How to Cite

Patel, K., Lee, B.Y., Mitra, S. & Trivedi, J. (2025) On the taxonomy of a sesarmid crab, Sesarma lanatum Alcock, 1900 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Sesarmidae) from India. Zootaxa, 5696 (1), 124–132. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5696.1.8