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The taxonomic position of Pagurus gracilipes (Stimpson, 1858) and Pagurus nipponensis (Yokoya, 1933), and description of a new species of Pagurus (Decapoda, Anomura, Paguridae) from Japan

Tomoyuki KOMAI

en Zoosystema 20 (2) - Pages 265-288

Published on 13 July 1998

This article is a part of the thematic issue Papers in honour of Alain Crosnier

Hermit crab specimens, previously assigned to Pagurus gracilipes (Stimpson, 1858) from the northwestern Pacific, have been critically reexamined. Examination of specimens from various localities from Japan and Russian Far East, has disclosed that males possess a short sexual tube on the right coxa of the fifth pereopod, and that two species have been synonimized under the name Pagurus gracilipes. The two taxa are provisionally transferred to the genus Parapagurodes McLaughlin et Haig, 1973. Parapagurodes gracilipes is redescribed on the basis of the specimens from northern Japan and Russian Far East, including topotypic material from Hakodate Bay, southern Hokkaido. Parapagurodes nipponensis (Yokoya, 1933), which has been considered to be synonymous with P. gracilipes, is reinstated for specimens from the Pacific coast of central and southwestern Japanese main islands, from Kashima, Ibaraki to Tosa Bay and Taiwan. The two species are for the most part geographically separated, though their distributions partly overlap. A neotype is designated for P. gracilipes, and a lectotype is selected for P. nipponensis . In addition, a new species of the genus Pagurus, P. alaini, is described and illustrated on the basis of material from Tosa Bay and Bungo Strait, Japan. The new species appears closest to P. kaiensis McLaughlin, 1997, known only from Kai Islands, Indonesia.


Keywords:

Crustacea, Decapoda, Anomura, Paguridae, Parapagurodes, Pagurus, northwestern Pacific, taxonomy.

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