Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  photo : Sima Usvyatsov

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace as long as wide, surface with deep grooves and tubercles; leaving the first three abdominal segments visible dorsally. Front with 2 triangular submedian teeth. Outer orbital tooth triangular, slender, reaching slightly beyond frontal teeth, inner margin granulate. Lateral margin of carapace granulate. Chelipeds in adult males unequal, in females and juveniles equal. Second and third legs long, third pair longest; last two pairs short and slender, dorsal in position and ending in hook-like dactyls. Male abdomen with second and third segments tridentate. color : carapace pale brownish grey, carapacial tubercles dark colored. common size : males CL 4.2 cm, females 3.6 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Differs from the only Mediterranean Dorippinid species, Meodorippe lanata (Linnaeus, 1767), in the strongly sculptured carapace, tridentate abdominal somites, lack of dense pubescence, and lack of row of dorsal spines on second pereiopodal merus. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : on sandy, muddy or gravelly bottoms, but also on coral reefs and oyster banks; intertidal to 73 m, mostly to 30 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 2004 [2004]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo West Pacific, Red Sea to Australia and China. It was collected in the Suez Canal (Monod, 1937, as D. dorsipes). Mediterranean : along the central coast of Israel (Galil, 2005). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Common locally. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Through the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Galil B.S., 2005. Dorippe quadridens (Crustacea: Decapoda: Dorippidae) - first record of an alien dorippid in the Mediterranean Sea. Crustaceana, 78(4): 497-498. Holthuis L.B. and R.B. Manning, 1990. Crabs of the subfamily Dorippinae MacLeay, 1838, from the Indo-West Pacific region (Crustacea: Decapoda: Dorippidae). Researches on Crustacea, special Number 3: 1-151. Monod Th., 1937. Crustacés. Mission A. Gruvel dans le Canal de Suez. I. Mém. Inst. Égypte, 34: 1-19.   FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: February 2005 ©ciesm 2002