Decapoda - Brachyura - Grapsidae - Metopograpsus

Metopograpsus messor (Forskål, 1775)



World Distribution
Naderloo (2011: 11) - Madagascar, East Africa, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Pakistan, Arabian Sea coast of India, Andaman Islands. Also Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Europa, Seychelles, Mayotte, Mauritius. ?French Polynesia.

Environnement : Marine - Substrat/Association : Hard bottom (rock and rubbles)

Vertical range : Intertidal - Min-Max observed: 0-5 m

Mayotte data
Metopograpsus messor (Forskål, 1775)
Material examined — See Bouchard et al., 2013: 27 - Mayotte KUW 2009, st. 2, 1 M 9.5 x 13.2 mm, 2 FF 7.6 x 10.3 mm, 9.0 x 12.4 mm, MNHN B32067, MNHN-IU-2009-986 (dét. R. Cléva).
Remarks — This species can be confused with Metopograpsus thukuhar (Owen, 1839). See remarks in Bouchard et al. (2013: 27).
Geographic and depth ranges — IWP, Red Sea, Mayotte (this work), South Africa to ?Hawaii, ?French Polynesia; intertidal, supratidal. Presence in Hawaii and French Polynesia should be confirmed because possible confusion with M. thukuhar (see Castro, 2011: 115; Poupin, 2005: 39).

Europa data
Metopograpsus messor - Fourmanoir, 1952 : 176 (Europa). - Guinot, 1967 : 285 (Liste, avec Europa).

Central Pacific data (Wallis & Futuna, Polynesia, Clipperton, Easter Island)
Metopograpsus messor - Kingsley, 1880c: 190 (Tahiti). - Miers, 1886: 258 (Tahiti). - Rathbun, 1907: 29 (Bora Bora). - Pesta, 1913: 61 (Tahiti). - Guinot, 1985: 453 (List). - Poupin, 1994a: 61 (Text); 1996a: 67 (Checklist). - Remark: shape of male first pleopod is the main character to separate this species from M. thukuhar and despite numerous observations (1986-1997), shape of M. messor pleopod has never been observed in French Polynesia; revision of older specimens attributed to messor is needed to confirm the presence of this species in these Islands).

References : PDF list, 214 pp (1.4 Mo)

This species in Worms Database