Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification Thalamita admete (Herbst, 1803) (cf. Kalopissis and Kalopissis, 1984)  drawing : Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Carapace broad, hexagonal, pubescent near orbits, antero-lateral margins, transverse granulate lines on frontal, protogastric, mesogastric, branchial regions, clustered on cardiac, post-gastric regions. Front wide, bilobed, well separated from broad supra-orbital angle. Antero-external angle of basal antennal segment greatly produced, filling orbital hiatus. Antero-lateral margins with five teeth, penultimate tooth smallest, posteriormost tooth spiniform, prominent. Chelipeds massive, subequal, glabrous; anterior margin of merus bearing prominent spine subdistally, followed by 2-3 rounded teeth; carpus with strong spine on internal margin, three tubercles on external surface; superior surface of chela with two tubercles interiorly, single tubercle externally. Posterior margin of fifth leg propodus smooth or with up to seven denticles. color : carapace reddish-brown, legs yellowish, cheliped fingers light brown. common size : CL 1.8 cm, (max.). DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Front bilobate; antero-lateral margins subparallel, with five teeth, penultimate tooth smallest. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Poorly known. habitat : 0-80 m. under stones, sandy and sandy-mud bottoms, with Posidonia, Caulerpa.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 1956 [1952]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-West Pacific, Red Sea to Taiwan. Mediterranean : recorded first from Israel (Holthuis, 1956; Holthuis and Gottlieb, 1958 [1952]). Successively recorded from southern Turkey (Holthuis, 1961); Lebanon (Shiber, 1981); Cyprus (Por, 1978); Greece, Aegean Sea (Peloponnisos and Gulf of Saronique) as Th. admete (Kalopissis and Kalopissis, 1984), Crete (d'Udekem d'Acoz, 1994). 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). Syria (Hasan et al., 2008). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Common along the Levantine and southern Turkish coast. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal (Calman, 1927). IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Crosnier A., 1962. Crustacés Décapodes Portunidae. Faune de Madagascar, 16: 1-154. Holthuis L.B., 1956. Notes on a collection of Crustacea Decapoda from the Great Bitter Lake, Egypt, with a list of species of Decapoda known from the Suez Canal. Zoologische Mededelingen, Leiden, 34(22): 301-330. Holthuis L.B. and E. Gottlieb, 1958. An annotated list of the decapod Crustacea of the Mediterranean coast of Israel, with an appendix listing the Decapoda of the Eastern Medierranean. Bulletin of the Research Council of Israel, Section B, Zoology, 7B(1-2): 1-126.   Stephenson W., 1972. An annotated check list and key to the Indo-West-Pacific swimming crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Portunidae). Bulletin of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 10: 1-64. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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