Family MUNIDIDAE Ahyong, Baba, Macpherson & Poore, 2010

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• Munididae Ahyong, S.T., Baba, K., Macpherson, E. & Poore, G.C.B. 2010. A new classification of the Galatheoidea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura). Zootaxa 2676: 57-68.

  Type genus:

   Munida Leach, 1821.

Introduction

Munidid squat lobsters typically have a spiniform rostrum with one, sometimes two, supraocular spines on each side. In some genera these are reduced to small tubercles (Ahyong et al. 2010). Munididae are the largest family of squat lobsters. The family ranges from intertidal to bathyal environments but most species concentrate on the continental shelf or slope. Phylogenetic relationships between the genera were investigated by Machordom and Macpherson (2004) and Macpherson & Machordom (2005), and summarised by Ahyong et al. (2011). Machordom et al. (2022) divided the large genus Munida reducing it to few species, none of which occur in Australia; all others were tranferred to other genera.

Diagnosis

Body squat lobster-like. Rostrum spiniform (rarely reduced to tubercle). Carapace supraocular spines present; dorsal surface with transverse striae. Tailfan well developed, folded under preceding pleomeres. Maxilliped 1 exopod flagellum well developed. Maxilliped 3 pediform; ischium and merus not expanded mesially. Maxilliped 3 with crista dentata; with epipod. Cheliped subcylindrical to ovate in cross-section.

Diagnosis References

Poore, G.C.B.,& Ahyong, S.T. 2023. Marine decapod Crustacea. A guide to families and genera of the World. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing pp. 928.

General References

Ahyong, S.T., Baba, K., Macpherson, E. & Poore, G.C.B. 2010. A new classification of the Galatheoidea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura). Zootaxa 2676: 57-68

Ahyong, S.T., Schnabel, K., & Macpherson, E. 2011. Chapter 3. Phylogeny and fossil record of the marine squat lobsters. pp. 73-104 in Poore, G.C.B., Ahyong, S.T. & Taylor, J. The biology of squat lobsters. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing pp. 363.

Machordom, A., & Macpherson, E. 2004. Rapid radiation and cryptic speciation in squat lobsters of the genus Munida (Crustacea, Decapoda) and related genera in the South West PacifIc: molecular and morphological evidence. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33: 259-279

Machordom, A.; Ahyong, S. T.; Andreakis, N.; Baba, K.; Buckley, D.; García-Jiménez, R.; McCallum, A. W.; Rodríguez-Flores, P. C.; Macpherson, E. 2022. Deconstructing the crustacean squat lobster genus Munida to reconstruct the evolutionary history and systematics of the family Munididae (Decapoda, Anomura, Galatheoidea). Invertebrate Systematics 36(10): 926-970

Macpherson, E. & Machordom, A. 2005. Use of morphological and molecular data to identify three new sibling species of the genus Munida Leach, 1820 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Galatheidae) from New Caledonia. Journal of Natural History 39: 819-834

History of changes