Family PYLOJACQUESIDAE McLaughlin & Lemaitre, 2001

Pylojacquesia colemani, carapace and right cheliped (not to scale) [from McLaughlin & Lemaitre 2001: figs 2a, 4b]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Pylojacquesidae McLaughlin, P.A. & Lemaitre, R. 2001. A new family for a new genus and new species of hermit crab of the superfamily Paguroidea (Decapoda: Anomura) and its phylogenetic implications. Journal of Crustacean Biology 21(4): 1062-1076 [1063].

  Type genus:

   Pylojacquesia McLaughlin & Lemaitre, 2001.

Introduction

Very recently, two specimens of an unusual hermit crab were discovered in the Museum für Naturkunde an der Universität Humbolt zu Berlin, Germany, that had been collected from off Brisbane, eastern Australia, by the S.M.S. Gazelle in 1875. These were recognised as sufficiently distinct to warrant the erection of a new family. The Pylojacquesidae appears to occupy a somewhat intermediate position between the superfamilies Paguroidea and Coenobitoidea, however it has been tentatively placed in the Paguroidea pending further investigation when new material becomes available.The only known species Pylojacquesia colemani lives in serpulid worm tubes of the genus Protula on sandy substrates of the continental shelf.

Diagnosis

Cephalothorax with linear transversalis and cervical groove distinct. Ocular peduncles well developed, corneas pigmented or not; ocular acicles elongate. Antennular and antennal peduncles well developed; antennal peduncle with supernumerary segmentation. Mandible with prominent corneous teeth. First maxilliped with multiarticulate flagellum. Third maxillipeds basally separated by narrow protrusion of sternal plate; crista dentata moderately well developed, without accessory tooth. Thoracic sternites IX–XI (sternites of third maxillipeds, chelipeds and second pereiopods) fused but with sutures apparent; sternites XII (sternites of pereiopods 3–5) well separated. First abdominal somite contiguous with last thoracic somite, but suture clearly discernible. Abdominal somites membranous, except for calcified tergite of sixth and partially calcified sternite and tergite(s) of first. Pleopods 3–5 developed on left side only. Uropods well developed. (From McLaughlin & Lemaitre 2001)

General References

McLaughlin, P.A. & Lemaitre, R. 2001. A new family for a new genus and new species of hermit crab of the superfamily Paguroidea (Decapoda: Anomura) and its phylogenetic implications. Journal of Crustacean Biology 21(4): 1062-1076

History of changes