Decapoda - Brachyura - Epialtidae - Menaethiops

Menaethiops brevicornis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1868)



World Distribution
Guinot (1962), A. Milne-Edwards (1868) - Océan Indien, Cap Sainte Marie, Sud de Madagascar. Egalement, Mayotte, premier signalement.

Environnement : Marine - Substrat/Association : Soft bottom (mud or sand)

Vertical range : Shallow-waters (0-100 m) - Min-Max observed: 0-5 m

Mayotte data
Menaethiops brevicornis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1868)
Material examined — Mayotte KUW 2009, st. 26, Mutsumbatsou reef, intertidal, 1 M 5.8 x 3.6 mm, photo, MNHN B32569, MNHN-IU-2009-1329.
Remarks — Rostral horns of the specimen examined are similar to those figured by A. Milne-Edwards (1868, pl. 19, fig. 1) for a male type specimen (8 x 5 mm) from Madagascar (Cap Sainte-Marie 'à une assez grande profondeur'). Its male pleopod is also typical of Menaethius species, produced distally in two short triangular lobes, as figured by Barnard (1950, fig. 8), Guinot (1962a, fig. 2), Griffin & Tranter (1986: fig. 18g-h) and Peyrot-Clausade & Serène (1976, pl. VD). Menaethiops natalensis Barnard, photographed from Madagascar in Peyrot-Clausade & Serène (1976, pl. IC), is also similar to Mayotte specimen but M. natalensis has a spine on the ocular peduncle, not observed on Mayotte specimen. It will be interesting to verify present determination with more specimens because the characters separating M. brevicornis (Madagascar, Mayotte), Menaethiops acutifrons (A. Milne-Edwards, 1868) (Zanzibar) and Menaethiops bicornis Alcock, 1895 (Zanzibar, Karachi) are in need of revision with series of specimens to better appreciate the morphological variations (cf. Guinot, 1962a: 4, with suggestion that the three species are potential synonyms).
Geographic and depth ranges — WIO, ?Oman (cf. Kazmi, 1997), Mayotte (this work) to Madagacar; intertidal to subtidal.

References : PDF list, 214 pp (1.4 Mo)

This species in Worms Database