Subtidal crabs of the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf: New collections and biogeographic considerations

Abstract

Benthic sampling was performed along all Iranian subtidal waters of the Persian Gulf during the years 2003 and 2004. A total of 56 species of crabs were caught from 174 stations using a trawler fishing net and Peterson grab. These species belong to 12 families, 15 subfamilies and 37 genera. The results of the present study revealed that families Portunidae, Leucosiidae and Pilumnidae have the highest species richness with 14, 13 and 13 species respectively. Zoogeographical analysis shows that a high proportion (27%) of the Iranian subtidal crabs have world distribution in the Northern part of Indo-West Pacific region and only two endemic species were found.

Gonioinfradens paucidentatus (A. Milne Edwards, 1861) (Crustacea, Decapoda, Portunidae): a new alien crab in the Mediterranean Sea

“…Gonioinfradens paucidentatus (A. Milne Edwards, 1861) is a portunid crab with a wide Indo-Pacific distribution: the Red Sea (SPIRIDONOV & NEUMANN, 2008), the Persian Gulf (Arabian and Iranian coasts, Gulf of Oman), the East African coast, Madagascar, Western Indian Ocean islands, Australia, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Japan, Hawaii (POUPIN, 1994(POUPIN, , 2007(POUPIN, , 2008APEL & SPIRIDONOV, 1998;DAVIE, 1998;APEL, 2001;NADERLOO & SARI, 2007). It occurs mainly on hard substrate from shallow subdital waters to 100 m of depth and reaches a carapace length of 52.5 mm (POUPIN, 1994).…”

The Epialtid Crab: <i>Hyastenus hilgendorfi</i> (De Man, 1887) A New Spider Crab Record from Iraqi Coast, NW-Arabian Gulf

“…This species is a very common spider crab in the Persian Gulf (Naderloo and Sari, 2007a). There are four species of the genus Hyastenus known from the Persian Gulf (Naderloo and Sari, 2007b) but only H. hilgendorfi is considered as an intertidal element.…”

First Records of Leucosiid Crabs: <i>Hiplyra sagitta</i> (Galil, 2009) from Iraqi Coast, NW-Arabian Gulf

“…Previous studies on the Persian Gulf brachyuran crabs are confined to Stephensen (1945), Basson et al (1977), Titgen (1982), Jones (1986), Apel (1994), Cooper (1995), Al-Ghais and Cooper (1996), Bahmani (1997), Apel (2001), Naderloo and Sari (2007), Galil (2009), Gilil et al (2012, Naderloo and Apel (2012) and Naderloo and Türkay (2012) have increased the number of reported leucosiid species to 37. The aim of the present paper deals with first record for Iraqi coast of Leucosiid crabs H. sagitta from fresh specimens collected from NW of the Arabian Gulf at Fao region and to add this species to the brachyuran crabs list of Iraqi waters.…”