Biodiversity and New Records of Subtidal Brachyuran Crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda) from Taiwan.

Abstract

This study examines subtidal brachyuran crabs collected from the offshore sewage discharge site of the Bali wastewater treatment plant, which serves the great Taipei metropolitan areas in Taiwan. It reports seven taxa of brachyuran crabs from Taiwan: three newly recorded species and four others identified only to genus level as the specimens obtained were either adult but partially damaged or juveniles. These species belong to six families and seven genera, including three new genera recorded for the first time in Taiwan: Ceratocarcinus White, 1847, Mariaplax Rahayu and Ng, 2014, and Xenophthalmus White, 1846. The identified species are: Paradorippe sp. (family Dorippidae H. Milne Edwards, 1837), Mariaplax chenae Rahayu and Ng, 2014 (family Hexapodidae Miers, 1886), Nursia sp. (family Leucosiidae Samouelle, 1819, subfamily Ebaliinae Stimpson, 1871), Seulocia sp. (family Leucosiidae Samouelle, 1819, subfamily Leucosiinae Samouelle, 1819), Pinnotheres sp. (family Pinnotheridae De Haan, 1833), Xenophthalmus pinnotheroides White, 1846 (family Xenophthalmidae Stimpson, 1858), and Ceratocarcinus frontodentata (Shen, Dai and Chen, 1982) (family Pilumnidae Samouelle, 1819). Ceratocarcinus frontodentata, M. chenae, and X. pinnotheroides are reported in Taiwan for the first time.