Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace wider than long, moderately convex, smooth. The front is cut into four shallow lobes. Anterolateral margins arched, cut into seven teeth: the first to fourth are of similar shape, separated from one another by very narrow incisions; the fifth is much smaller and acute; the sixth is the largest, distally acuminate; the seventh is smaller than the preceding tooth. Chelipeds long, massive; palm inflated, smooth but for three faintly granular costae on upper surface. Pereiopods elongate, slender, last pair natatory, with propodus and dactylus broadened for swimming. color : carapace and pereiopods nearly uniform orange color. Fingers dark brown distally and along their inner margins, the dactyl bearing a pale round spot medially on upper margin. common size : CL 4.2 cm (max.). DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Carapace broad, smooth, seven anterolateral teeth; manus of cheliped smooth; infraorbital margin consists of four sub equal lobes. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : known to inhabit coral reef and coral rubble and rocky bottoms, intertidal-80m. It was collected off a submerged calcareous sandstone ridge on biogenic rubble in the Mediterranean.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 2002. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific: from the Red Sea to Japan, Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii. Though collected in the southern Red Sea, it has not previously been recorded from the northern Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez or in the Suez Canal. Mediterranean : a single female was collected off Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2002. The crab has been sighted off southwestern Turkey since 1996 (Baki Yokes, pers. comm.) and collected between 1996 and 2003, at depths between 3 and 26 m, off Kas Peninsula, off the southwestern coast of Turkey (Yokes and Galil, 2004) and from Iskenderun to Fethiye, off Datca Peninsula (Yokes and Galil, 2006c; Yokes et al., 2007). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS A small local population off southwestern Turkey, and possibly off Israel. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Presumably via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Apel M. and V. A. Spiridonov, 1998. Taxonomy and zoogeography of the portunid crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Portunidae) of the Arabian Gulf and adjacent waters. Fauna of Arabia, 17: 159-331. Crosnier A., 1962. Crustacés decapods portunides. Faune de Madagascar, 16: 1-154, pls. 1-13. Galil B.S., 2004. Carupa tenuipes Dana, 1851: An Indo-Pacific swimming crab new to the Mediterranean (Decapoda, Brachyura, Portunidae). Crustaceana, 77(2): 249-251. Leene J. E., 1940. Biological results of the Snellius Expedition. VI. The Portunidae of the Snellius Expedition (Part 1). Temminikia, 5: 163-168.   Neumann V. and V. A. Spiridonov, 1999. Shallow water crabs from the Western Indian Ocean: Portunidea and Xanthoidea excluding Pilumnidae (Crustacea Decapoda Brachyura). Trop. Zool., 12: 9-66. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: October 2008 ©ciesm 2002