Family MUNIDOPSIDAE Ortmann, 1898

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• Munidopsidae Ortmann, 1898.

  Type genus:

   Munidopsis Whiteaves, 1874.

Introduction

Munidopsids are a family of largely deep-sea squat lobsters. Most occur at slope to bathyal depths, but the family also includes the deepest occurring squat lobster, M. taiwanica Osawa, Lin & Chan, 2008, recorded at 5491 m in the Mariana Trench. Munidopsidae also boasts the only anchialine squat lobster, M. polymorpha Koelbel, 1892, living in shallow water caves in the Canary Islands.

The phylogenetic separation of munidopsids from other galatheoid families is well attested (Ahyong et al. 2010; Bracken-Grissom et al. 2013), but the single morphological feature always separating munidopsids from galatheids and munidids is the absence of a flagellum on the exopod of maxilliped 1. Nevertheless, munidopsids almost always have reduced eyes, whereas the eyes are usually well developed in galatheids and munidids. The largest genus, Munidopsis, includes more than 270 species arrayed in many seemingly discrete species groups (some with currently synonymised names), that may ultimately be recognised as separate genera. Poore & Ahyong (2023) provided a key to genera.

Diagnosis

Body squat lobster-like. Rostrum triangular, quadrate or spiniform. Supraocular spines absent. Carapace smooth, tuberculate, spinose or with transverse striae. Tailfan well developed, folded under preceding pleomeres. Maxilliped 1 exopod flagellum absent or reduced. 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

Bracken-Grissom, H.D., Cannon, M.E., Cabezas, P., Feldmann, R.M., Schweitzer, C.E., Ahyong, S.T., Felder, D.L., Lemaitre, R. & Crandall, K.A. 2013. A comprehensive and integrative reconstruction of evolutionary history for Anomura (Crustacea: Decapoda). BMC Evolutionary Biology 13: 128

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.

History of changes