Decapoda - Brachyura - Xanthidae - Platypodiella

Platypodiella spectabilis (Herbst, 1794)

9 Illustration(s)

World Distribution
Felder et al. (2009, Checklist) - Western Atlantic. Bermudas, South Florida, Gulf Mexico, Antilles, Venezuela, Brazil. 4-62 m.

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

Vertical range : Shallow-waters (0-100 m) - Min-Max observed: 1-62 m

Lesser Antilles data
Distribution: VGI (St Thomas, St John, Tortola - Guana), ICA (St Eustatius, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, Martinique, Barbados), IOV (Margarita, Cubagua, Los Roques, Bonaire, Curaçao). 1-62 m. WA.
Cancer lobata H. Milne Edwards, 1834 (1834-1840): 375, Habite les Antilles - Accepted as Platypodiella spectabilis (Herbst, 1794) in WoRMS (2016).
Cancer venustus Desbonne, in Desbonne & Schramm, 1867: 23, Guadeloupe [Habite les côtes rocheuses de la Guadeloupe, dans les cavités madréporiques] - Accepted as Lophactaea lobata (H. Milne Edwards, 1834) in A. Milne-Edwards (1873-1881: 242) a junior synonym of Platypodiella spectabilis (Herbst, 1794).
Lophactea lobata - A. Milne-Edwards, 1873-1881: 242 (Antilles). - Nobili, 1898: 2, St Thomas [coll. Duchassaing]. - Same as Cancer lobata H. Milne Edwards, 1834 a junior synonym of Platypodiella spectabilis (Herbst, 1794) in WoRMS (2016).
Platypodia spectabilis - Rathbun, 1921: 68, Barbados [Barbados-Antigua Expedition 1918]. - Rathbun, 1924: 14, Curaçao [coll. C.J. van der Horst, 1920]. - Rathbun, 1930: 247, pl. 102, fig. 4, St Thomas, St John, Guadeloupe (Marie Galante), Martinique, Barbados, Curaçao. - Rathbun, 1933: 54, St Thomas, St John. - Rathbun, 1936: 384, Bonaire, Klein Bonaire [coll. P. Hummelinck, 1930]. - Chace, 1956: 155, Los Roques. - Rodríguez, 1980: 353, Los Roques.
Platypodiella spectabilis - Tagliafico et al., 2005: tab. 1, Margarita (Los Frailes). - Hernández-Ávila et al., 2007: tab. 1, Cubagua. - Martin & Zimmerman, 2007: 59, Tortola (Guana). - Faasse, 2016: 52, St Eustatius. - Garcia-Hernandez et al., 2016: 209, St Eustatius.
Platypodiella spectabilis - Guadeloupe, Karubenthos 2012, det. J. Poupin October 2013, 1 male 9.1 x 13.0 mm, MNHN-IU-2013-16287, st. GM06 (1 m), JL1038 (photo field); 1 male 15.0 x 21.8 mm, MNHN-IU-2013-14507, st. GM11 (1 m), JL687, photo field - Martinique, photo in situ, Y. Buske and groupe BIOSPHERES, November 2015, coll. R. Ferry & Y. Buske, det. J. Poupin.
Comment: The color pattern of this crab is useful for its identification but it can show a large range of variation, as illustrated by Martin & Zimmerman (2007) for specimens collected in the Virgin Islands (Guana Island).

Comment(s) on data
Platypodiella picta (A. Milne-Edwards, 1869) is the analogous species of P. spectabilis in the eastern Atlantic. A color photo of P. picta from Sao Tome is in Wirtz (2018: 44, fig. 2; Arquipelago - Life and Marine Sciences).

References : PDF list, 214 pp (1.4 Mo)

This species in Worms Database