Crustacea Anomura: Les espèces indo-ouest pacifiques du genre Eumunida Smith, 1880 (Chirostylidae). Description de six espèces nouvelles
de Saint Laurent, M.; Poupin, J. (1996). Crustacea Anomura: Les espèces indo-ouest pacifiques du genre Eumunida Smith, 1880 (Chirostylidae). Description de six espèces nouvelles, in: Crosnier, A. (Ed.) Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM 15. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Série A, Zoologie, 168: pp. 337-385
In: Crosnier, A. (Ed.) (1996). Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM 15. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Série A, Zoologie, 168. Editions du Muséum: Paris. ISBN 2-85653-501-1. 539 pp.
In: Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Série A, Zoologie. Editions du Muséum: Paris. ISSN 0078-9747
New specimens of the genus Eumunida Smith have been collected in the Indo-West Pacific, including new or poorly known species. The study of the material collected, together with the reexamination of types or published specimens of previously described species, demonstrated the need for a revision of the genus in the vast Indo-West Pacific area. The two groups of species recognised by authors since the work of GORDON (1930) are elevated in the present paper to subgeneric rank. The nominal subgenus Eumunida includes those species bearing a pair of well-developed spines on the anterior margin of the thoracic sternite 4 (group A of GORDON). The new subgenus Eumunidopsis, with Eumunida capillata de Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990, as type species, includes the species in which the anterior margin of this sternite is at most finely denticulated, most usually without any prominent spines. Four new species are established in the subgenus Eumunida: E. (Eumunida) treguieri sp. nov., from French Polynesia, E. (Eumunida) multilineata sp. nov., from the eastern coast of Australia, and E. (Eumunida) depressa and E. (Eumunida) macphersoni spp. nov., both from Japan. Two new Indonesian species are described in the subgenus Eumunidopsis, E. (Eumunidopsis) ampliata and E. (Eumunidopsis) karubar spp. nov. Apart from the description of new taxa, the present study includes a revised list of all known species from the Indo- West Pacific area, with an identification key, in French and English, along with references, types, remarks on the affinities and distribution. Whenever it has seemed useful, new diagnoses and illustrations of poorly known species are provided for each taxon. Two species have been collected in French Polynesia, where the genus had never before been found. E. (Eumunida) treguieri sp. nov. is a large species, close to E. (Eumunida) similior Baba, 1990, from Madagascar and to another new species from Japan. The second Polynesian species is E. (Eumunida) keijii de Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990, previously known only from New Caledonian waters. The Franco-Indonesian cruise KARUBAR, in 1992, has provided a few Eumunida. This material includes three specimens of E. (Eumunidopsis) smithii Henderson, 1885, about 20 individuals of a closely-allied species, E. (Eumunidopsis) karubar sp. nov., a very small specimen of E. (Eumunidopsis) laevimana Gordon, 1930, never found since its original description, and one young male, provisionally identified as E. (Eumunida) pacifica Gordon, 1930. The taxonomic problems centered around Eumunida smithii, already discussed in DE SAINT LAURENT & MACPHERSON (1990a), have been solved; the new KARUBAR material identified with it allows a better definition of the species and leads to the proposal of the synonymy of Eumunida propior Baba, 1988 with HENDERSON'S species. The "Siboga" specimens identified as E. balssi by VAN DAM (1933) are conspecific with it, while the material identified by GORDON (1930) and VAN DAM (1933) as E. smithii Henderson represents the same new taxon, herein described as E. (Eumunidopsis) ampliata sp. nov. The small male from the "Albatross" dredgings cited in BABA (1988) belongs to another species very close to, if not identical with, E. (Eumunidopsis) capillata de Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990. The KARUBAR collections also include two dozen individuals of another new species, E. (Eumunidopsis) karubar sp. nov., very close to E. (Eumunidopsis) parva de Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990, and E. (Eumunidopsis) smithii. These three species form a small unit of related taxa, without a pad on the propodus of the chelipeds, and in which the males have vestigial pleopods on abdominal segments 3 to 5, absent in all other Eumunida. Examination of three Japanese specimens of Eumunida cited by MIYAKE (1982: 144, pi. 48), and BABA (1986: 287, fig. 116) under the names E. fumambulus and E. pacifica, respectively proved to belong to neither species: they represent two different, new species, which are here described as E. depressa and E. macphersoni spp. nov. The first is close to the new Polynesian species E. treguieri, the second to E. pacifica and E. keijii. The geographical ranges of several species are extended: E. (Eumunida) keijii de Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990, described from New Caledonian waters, has now been found in French Polynesia and off Wallis Islands in the South Eastern Pacific. Specimens attributed to E. (Eumunida) capillata, described by the same authors from New Caledonia, have been collected in Indonesia during the French Indonesian cruise KARUBAR; the "Albatross" specimen from the South of Taiwan, refered to E. smithii by BABA (1988), is also here attributed to E. capillata. Three small Eumunida (Eumunidopsis) from the Marshall Islands (Bikini), provided by the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, are identified as E. (Eumunida) minor de Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990, previously known only from New Caledonia and Madagascar. Some characters, used to differentiate the species, can vary according to the size and sex of the specimens. The striae of the carapace and abdominal tergites, the spinulation of the chelipeds, and the development of the ventral pad on their palm, for example, are likely to differ noticeably from the juvenile to the adult stages. Moreover, autotomy of one of the chelipeds is not infrequent in the genus, and may lead to a dimorphism in size and/or ornamentation of the regenerated appendage. Despite our efforts, the species identification of Eumunida remains difficult, the more so when only isolated specimens are available. Some of our taxonomic conclusions may need to be re-appraised if and when further material is collected. It should also be noted that the colouration of fresh specimens is important and has proved useful in helping to distinguish species in this study.
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