Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

<em>Xanthias lamarcki</em> [from A. Milne Edwards 1873]

Xanthias lamarcki [from A. Milne Edwards 1873]

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Family XANTHIDAE MacLeay, 1838


Compiler and date details

May 2012 - Peter Davie, Queensland Museum, Brisbane

Introduction

The Xanthidae is the most diverse of the crab families in Australian waters. Xanthids are found in a variety of habitats from the intertidal to moderately deep water, but they are most abundant in shallow water, coastal reef environments. Because many species have the fingers of the claw darkly pigmented, they are often called `black-fingered crabs'. Xanthids range in feeding type from algal scrapers that have the fingers of the claw ending in broad cusps, to aggressive predators with sharply pointed claws; a few even live in symbiotic relationships with corals and other cnidarians. Some have been reported to be highly toxic, and their consumption has caused deaths in other parts of the Indo-west Pacific region. The toxicity is unpredictable, and a range of different toxins is implicated; thus it appears that the crabs are incorporating them from their food. Such toxins have also been reported in a range of small reef crabs belonging to several other families (for review of Australian species, see Llewellyn & Davie 1987).

In the past their great diversity and lack of a general taxonomic treatment made identification of xanthids extremely difficult. This problem was alleviated considerably with the milestone publication by Serène (1984) on the Xanthoidea of the western Indian Ocean. This work provided the first comprehensive keys to the Indo-west Pacific subfamilies, genera and species. However, a number of other important works have dealt with the Australian fauna, including those of Hess (1865), Grant & McCulloch (1906), Rathbun (1911), Hale (1927), Montgomery (1931), Ward (1933a, 1933b, 1934, 1936), Balss (1935), McNeill (1968), Serène (1972), Guinot (1976), Davie (1989), Ng (1993) and Davie & Turner (1994).

The taxonomic arrangement of Xanthidae has changed greatly over about the last 30 years. The present classification follows that of Ng et al. (2008).

 

Diagnosis

Carapace hexagonal, transversely hexagonal to transversely oval, sometimes subcircular; dorsal regions (areolation) generally, but not always, well defined; surface usually ridged or granular. Frontal margin more or less bilobed. Anterolateral margins generally with two to six teeth, spines, or lobes, sometimes weakly differentiated. Epistome with ridges that define efferent branchial canals absent or confined to the posterior part of the buccal cavity, not continuing on to meet the anterior buccal frame. Chelipeds with fingers pointed or spoon-tipped. Walking legs with or without a dactylo-propodal articulation formed by a rounded prolongation of propodal lateral margin sliding against and beneath a projecting button situated proximally on lateral margin of dactylus. Thoracic sternum relatively narrow. Male abdomen consisting of five movable segments with segments 3–5 fused (sutures may sometimes be more or less evident). Male genital openings coxal; female openings sternal. Male first gonopod slender, curved or sinuous, relatively simple apically, lacking complex lobes or folds; typically with long setae distally or subdistally; second gonopod short, less than 0.25 times length of first.

 

General References

Balss, H. 1935. Die brachyuren Dekapoden der Reise Michaelsen-Hartmeyer nach Südwestaustralien 1905. Eine geographische Übersicht nebst Beschreibung einiger neuer Formen. Zoologischer Anzeiger 111(1–2): 35-42 figs 1-5

Davie, P.J.F. 1989. New records of Demania (Crustacea: Decapoda: Xanthidae) from Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 27(2): 123-128

Davie, P.J.F. & Turner, P.A. 1994. A new species and a new record of Hepatoporus from north-western Australia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Xanthidae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 37(1): 83-86

Grant, F.E. & McCulloch, A.R. 1906. On a collection of Crustacea from the Port Curtis District, Queensland. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 31(1): 2-53, text-figs 1-3 pls 1-4

Guinot, D. 1976. Constitution de quelques groupes naturels chez les Crustacés Décapodes Brachyoures. I. La super-famille des Bellioidea et trois sous-familles de Xanthoidae (Polydectinae Dana, Trichiinae de Haan, Actaeinae Alcock). Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 97: 1-308 figs 1-47 pls 1-19

Hale, H.M. 1927. The Crustaceans of South Australia. Eumalacostraca. Adelaide : Government Printer Vol. 1 201 pp., 202 figs.

Hess, W. 1865. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Decapoden-Krebse Ost-Australiens. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 31: 127-173 pls 6-7

Lasley, R.M. Jr, Lai, J.C.Y. & Thoma, B.P. 2013. A new genus for Chlorodiella longimana (H. Milne Edwards) supported by morphology and molecular data, with a preliminary phylogeny of the Chlorodiellinae (Crustacea : Decapoda : Xanthidae). Invertebrate Systematics 27: 379–390

Llewellyn, L. & Davie, P. 1987. Crabs and Other Crustaceans. pp. 126-135 in Covacevich, J., Davie, P. & Pearn, J. (eds). Toxic Plants and Animals. A Guide for Australia. Brisbane : Queensland Museum 504 pp.

McNeill, F.A. 1968. Crustacea, Decapoda & Stomatopoda. Scientific Reports of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928-1929 7(1): 1-98 pls 1-2

Montgomery, S.K. 1931. Report on the Crustacea Brachyura of the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Abrolhos Islands under the leadership of Professor W.J. Dakin, in 1913; along with other crabs from Western Australia. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 37: 405-465 1 text-fig. pls 24-30

Ng, P.K.L, Guinot, D. & Davie, P.J.F. 2008. Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant brachyuran crabs of the world. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 17: 1-286 [Date published 31 January 2008]

Ng, P.K.L. 1993. Kraussiinae, a new subfamily for the genera Kraussia Dana, 1852, Palapedia, new genus, and Garthasia, new genus (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Xanthidae), with descriptions of two new species from Singapore and the Philippines. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 41(1): 133-157

Rathbun, M.J. 1911. Reports of the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1905, under the leadership of Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner. Vol. III. No. XI. Marine Brachyura. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London Zool. 14(2): 191-261, text-figs 1, 2 pls 15-20

Serène, R. 1972. Observations on the Indo-pacific species of Kraussia Dana 1852 (Decapoda: Brachyura). Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia 55(2): 41-62 figs 1-24

Serène, R. 1984. Crustacés Décapodes Brachyoures de l'Océan Indien occidental et de la Mer Rouge. Xanthoidea: Xanthidae et Trapeziidae. Avec un addendum par Crosnier, A.: Carpilliidae et Menippidae. Faune Tropicale 24: 1-400 figs A-C, 1-243 pls 1-48

Ward, M. 1933. New genera and species of marine Decapoda Brachyura from the coasts of New South Wales and Queensland. The Australian Zoologist 7(5): 377-394 pls 21-23

Ward, M. 1933. The true crabs of the Capricorn Group, Queensland. (Class Crustacea, Order Decapoda Brachyura). Part 1. Xanthidae. The Australian Zoologist 7(5): 237-255 [dated 1932 but published 1933]

Ward, M. 1935. Notes on a collection of crabs from Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Bulletin of the Raffles Museum 9: 5-28 pls 1-3 [Dated as 1934 but published in Feb 1935, see Low & Tan (2009)]

Ward, M. 1936. Crustacea Brachyura from the coasts of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum XI(1): 1-13, 3 pls

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
04-Jun-2012 04-Jun-2012 MOVED
10-May-2012 10-May-2012 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)