Uroptychodes, new genus of Chirostylidae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura), with description of three new species

Abstract

Examination of materials collected from Indonesia, New Caledonia and vicinity, now deposited in the Muséum National d´Histoire Naturelle, disclosed three additional undescribed species of chirostylids belonging to the Uroptychus spinimarginatus group. The group is now shifted to a distinct genus Uroptychodes. Uroptychus grandirostris Yokoya, 1933, which can be transferred to Uroptychodes, has been a problematic species because of the brevity of the original description and the loss of the type material. However, a recent finding of a specimen, which is in poor condition, very much like the illustration of U. grandirostris by Yokoya (1933: Fig. 29), but different from the description of U. grandirostris given by van Dam (1939) for one of the type specimens, suggests that the type material of U. grandirostris includes at least two species. In this paper a neotype is selected for U. grandirostris. The genus Uroptychodes now contains 10 species. All these species are reviewed and a key to the species of the genus is provided.