Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  drawing : Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace rectangular, wider than long, depressed, regions well defined; lateral, branchial regions granulate. Cervical and branchial grooves defining three teeth on lateral margin, anteriormost largest. Front narrow, deflexed, distinctly furrowed medially. Eye stalks slender, elongate, with cornea projecting beyond lateral margins of carapace. Lower orbital margin serrate. Chelipeds sexually dimorphic, enlarged in male, slender in female. Upper margin of chela with rows of large, forwardly directed, pointed granules, outer surface closely granulose, longitudinal ridge subparallel with lower margin; inner surface of chela distaly pilose, fingers deflexed, interiorly pilose. Third pereopod longest, stoutest. color : brownish. common size : males CL 1.1 cm, females CL 1.3 cm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Carapace quadrate, its lateral margin tridentate, eyestalks remarkably long, extending to lateral margin, slender. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : sublittoral, 5-74 m, fine sand with little mud.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Southern Turkey, 1995 [1994]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific origin. Mediterranean : recorded first from southern Turkey, (Enzenross and Enzenross, 1995 [1994]). Collected in Haifa Bay, Israel, April 2003 (Ksiunin and Galil, 2003). Collected in Gökova Bay, Aegean coast of Turkey (Katagan et al., 2004), and from the Bay of Iskenderun, SE Turkey (Karhan, pers. comm.). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS - speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Presumably via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Barnes R.S.K., 1971. Biological results of the Snellius Expedition XXIII. The genus Macrophthalmus (Crustacea, Brachyura). Zoologische Verhandelingen, Leiden, 115: 1-40. Enzenross R. and L. Enzenross, 1995. Erstnachweis indopazifischer Brachyura (Crustacea: Decapoda) von der turkischen Mittelmeerkuste. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie A (Biologie), 521: 1-4. Kocatas A., T. Katagan and A.S. Ates, 2002. Lessepsian invasion decapod crustaceans at Turkish seas. In: Öztürk B. and N. Basusta (eds.), Workshop on Lessepsian Migrations. Turkish Marine Research Foundation Publication, 9: 56-58.   Ksiunin G. and B.S. Galil, 2003. A new record of an Indo-West Pacific crab (Crustacea: Decapoda) from the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Israel Journal of Zoology, 49(4): 316-317. Lewinsohn Ch., 1977. Die Ocypodidae des Roten Meeres (Crustacea Decapoda, Brachyura). Zoologisches Verhandelingen, Leiden, 152: 43-84. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: 2009 ©ciesm 2002