Decapoda - Brachyura - Pilumnidae - Latopilumnus

Latopilumnus malardi (de Man, 1914)



World Distribution
Comoros (Mayotte), Madagascar. Probably widespread in WIO and IWP. Invasive (non established?) in Levantine Sea (WoRMS, 2018 from Türkay database) and English Channel (transported between barnacles fixed on ship hull coming from Madagascar).

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

Vertical range : Shallow-waters (0-100 m) - Min-Max observed: 0-2 m

Mayotte data
Latopilumnus malardi (de Man, 1914)
Material examined — Mayotte KUW 2009, st. 10, Islet Quatre frères (Vatou) east, intertidal, 2 MM 4.5 x 6.2 and 5.3 x 7.2 mm (photo), MNHN-IU-2013-7236.
Remarks — These specimens were pre-determined after the fieldwork as Pilumnus sp. B (J. Poupin, July 2011). They were re-determined during the preparation of the present contribution with the help of P.K.L. Ng. Latopilumnus malardi is proposed herein by using characters in Ng & Clark (2008) for the revision of the genera Latopilumnus Türkay & Schuhmacher, 1985 and Aniptumnus Ng, 2002. In Mayotte specimens the G1 is strongly curved at tip (hooked), a character that separate them from related Latopilumnus conicus where this part is not recurved (compare Ng & Clark, 2008, figs 4e-f and 8d-e). Laptopilumns malardi is also close to Latopilumnus truncatospinosus (de Man, 1914) but distinct by the aspect of anterolateral teeth of carapace, less pointed than in L. truncatospinosus, and granules on carpus and chela of chelipeds, pearl-like in L. malardi versus conic and truncated in L. truncatospinosus (compare Ng & Clark, 2008, figs 4a, c-d and 5a, g-i). Aniptumnus vietnamicus Ng & Clark, 2008 is another related species, similar to L. malardi for distal aspect of male G1. Specimens from Vietnam formerly attributed by Raoul Serène to ‘Parapilumnus malardi’ have been corrected into A. vietnamicus by Ng & Clark (2008). Specimens of L. malardi from Mayotte are separated from A. vietnamicus by the aspect of the last ambulatory leg (fourth) with distal margin of basis-ischium not lined with comb-like granules and proximo-ventral margin of the merus not granulated.
Geographic and depth ranges — (?)WIO; invasive in the Levantine Sea and English channel; intertidal, subtidal. Latopilumnus malardi is known with certainty from Madagascar (type locality) and Mayotte (this work). No other records were retreived in the litterature although the species is probably widespread in the WIO and even in the IWP. De Man (1913, 1914) has reported the species between barnacles fixed on ship hull mooring at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, English Channel, coming from Madagascar. WoRMS (2018) also mentions the crab from the Levantine Sea from Türkay (2015, personal database).

Comment(s) on data
First Id. as Pilumnus sp. B pre-det Poupin, 2011 with this comment: Pas pu trouver d'espèce correspondante, en particulier dans Balss (1933) et Takeda & Miyake (1968). Le mérus et le carpe du chélipède portent chacun une 'gouttière' tranversale distale, remarquable. Peut être dans un genre autre que Pilumnus (Heteropilumnus, Glabropilumnus, Parapilumnus .. ?). Espèce sans doute très commune, récoltée en zone intertidale.

References : PDF list, 214 pp (1.4 Mo)

This species in Worms Database