Family VARUNIDAE H. Milne Edwards, 1853

Utica crassimana [from Hasswell 1882: pl. 2 fig. 3]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Varunacea Milne Edwards, H. 1853. Mémoires sur la famille des Ocypodiens, suite. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Paris Zoology 3 20: 163-228 pls 6-11 [175] [corrected to Varuninae by Alcock, A. 1900. Materials for a Carcinological Fauna of India. No. 6. The Brachyura Catametopa, or Grapsoidea. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 69(Pt 2 No. 3): 279–456 (288, 400)].

Diagnosis

Carapace typically subquadrate to rounded; dorsal surface moderately convex; usually smooth. Subhepatic and pterygostomian regions smooth, declivous, posterolateral branchial region usually with an oblique ridge defining a triangular facet. Anterolateral margins convex, usually with two more or less well-defined epibranchial lobes behind truncate exorbital angle. Front entire, slightly or moderately deflexed, sometimes sublaminar. Suborbital crest subparallel to orbit, connecting with anterior border of buccal cavern. Interantennular septum broad; antennules folding obliquely. Antennal flagellum usually relatively long. Third maxilliped moderately or slightly gaping when closed; merus and ischium without an oblique setose ridge; palp articulating at middle of anterior border of merus; merus with antero-external angle sometimes strongly produced and auriculate; exopod narrow or greatly widened and broader than ischium, with flagellum long. Male abdomen with seven free segments; not usually covering thoracic sternum between last pair of legs. Walking legs of one genus (Varuna) flattened for swimming.

History of changes