First record of Petrolisthes virgatus Paul'son, 1875 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Anomura, Porcellanidae) from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Iran

Abstract

Recent marine expeditions to the Abu-Musa Island (in the Persian Gulf) and Gulf of Oman yielded a first record of the porcelain crab Petrolisthes virgatus Paul'son, 1875, that had not been recorded from these water bodies. In both localities, specimens have been collected from rock crevices in the rocky-cobble shores of the low intertidal zone. Records of this species extend its range in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean.

Key words
Petrolisthes virgatus; Abu-Musa Island; Persian Gulf; Gulf of Oman; Indian Ocean

The PetrolisthesStimpson, 1858 is the largest and morphologically most diverse genus of the family Porcellanidae, with nearly 100 known species (Hiller and Werding, 2007; De Grave et al., 2009; Osawa and McLaughlin, 2010). This genus, like other members of its family, occupies variety of habitats including depressions under stones, spaces in worm tubes, cavities of sponges, and excavations in coral reefs (Rodríguez et al., 2005). Several species of Petrolisthes are most common and widely distributed along the Iranian coasts of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman (Naderloo and Türkay, 2012; Naderloo et al., 2013; 2015). Naderloo et al. (2013) recorded 11 species of Porcellanidae from the Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, of which three belonged to Petrolisthes. Recently, a new species, Petrolisthes tuerkayi was described from the Persian Gulf by Naderloo and Apel (2014). Currently, 16 species of Porcellanidae are recorded from the Gulf of Oman, of which seven are Petrolisthes (Naderloo et al., 2015).

Petrolisthes virgatusPaul'son, 1875 (Fig. 1), in comparison with other species of the genus Petrolisthes, is relatively a rare species in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. During the several samplings along the Iranian coast of these Gulfs, only three specimens of this species have been collected, which presented here.

Figure 1
Petrolisthes virgatus Paul'son, 1875, adult female, carapace length = 6.19 mm, carapace breadth = 5.47 mm, Djod village, Gulf of Oman, 10 October 2014. (a) Dorsal view; (b) ventral view. Photo credit: R. Abdollahi.

Systematics

Infraorder Anomura MacLeay, 1838

Family Porcellanidae Haworth, 1825

Genus PetrolisthesStimpson, 1858

Petrolisthes virgatus Paul'son, 1875

Remarks

The specimens were collected from northern coast of the Gulf of Oman (Djod village, 25°26.820'N 59°30.630'E, Fig. 2) and Abu-Musa Island (Park-e Qadir, 25°53.751'N 55° 02.643'E) in the Persian Gulf (Fig. 2) and deposited in the Zoological Museum, University of Tehran (ZUTC: 5346-8). The present specimens are in full agreement with the original description and illustrations of P. virgatus given by Paul'son (1875). The type locality and world distribution of this species are presented in Fig. 2. The distribution of P. virgatus in western Indian Ocean in comparison to western side of the Pacific Ocean includes more localities, and stretches from northern coast of the Arabian Sea to near the South Africa. The distribution of this species in both oceans has just been limited to western sides, in marine tropical and subtropical regions. This species has a symbiotic relationship with the sea urchin Echinometra mathaei (Blainville, 1825) that can be used as a clue for more effective sampling (Limviriyakul et al., 2016). So far, few specimens are known from the area and that it needs targeted sampling in the right habitats with respect to its relation to E. mathaei to find out more about its distribution and abundance in the region. Moreover, this species can be hidden within sponges, coral and other spaced biogenic structures. It seems that more unrecorded or even undescribed species belonging to the genus Petrolisthes await discovery among the decapod fauna of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

Figure 2
The World distribution and new records of the Petrolisthes virgatus (Paul'son, 1875): (1) Goal or Ras Muhammad, Sinai Peninsula, Red Sea (type locality) (Paul'son, 1875); (2) Obock, Djibouti, Gulf of Aden (Nobili, 1906); (3) Shadwan Island in the mouth of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt, Red Sea (Balss, 1915); (4) Ghardaqa, Egypt, Red Sea (Ramadan, 1936); (5) Elath, Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea (Lewinsohn, 1979); (6) unknown exact locality, Red Sea (E. Rüppell collector, 1826: deposited in Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt, accessible via http://sesam.senckenberg.de/page/index.htm); (7) Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Red Sea (B. Werding collector, 2013: deposited in Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt, accessible via http://sesam.senckenberg.de/page/index.htm); (8) Mozambique (Barnard, 1955; Kalk, 1958; Macnae and Kalk, 1958; Kensley, 1970); (9) Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Ortmann, 1894) as P. trivirgatus Ortmann, 1894; (10) Zanzibar, Tanzania (Lenz, 1905) as P. trivirgatus (see Taramelli, 1955); (11) Hirashima, Ogasawara Island, Japan (Ooishi, 1970); (12) Sar Uanle, south of Chisimaio, Somalia (Lewinsohn, 1969); (13) Mughsayl and Mirbat, southern Oman (Hogarth, 1988); (14) Socotra Island, Indian Ocean (Simões et al., 2001); (15) Amami Group Island, Japan (Nakasone and Miyake, 1972); (16) Yakabi-Jima Island, Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan (Nomura et al., 1996); (17) Fan-Zai-Aou Bay, southern East China Sea, off the coast of Keelung City in northern Taiwan (Limviriyakul et al., 2016); with new records of this species from (18) the Djod Village, Sistan and Balouchestan Province, Gulf of Oman, Iran (present study) and (19) the Abu-Musa Island, Persian Gulf, Iran (present study).

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our great thanks to Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) for funding the Biodiversity Project of Abu-Musa Island. We are very grateful to Abu-Musa Island's governorship and the Djod village's residents, who provided facilitation during our samplings. Many thanks to Rashed Abdollahi (for taking photographs and his helps in samplings), Majid Alinoori (helping in sampling), Michael Türkay (guide to accesses SMF database) and Alexandra Hiller (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute & Centre of Excellence in Marine Sciences, for primary identification of species).

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• 1
  This article is part of the tribute offered by the Brazilian Crustacean Society in memoriam of Michael Türkay for his outstanding contribution to Carcinology.

• 2
  Guest Editor: Célio Magalhães

• Zoobank:

  http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F2BCDE56-78D2-4A58-9BDB-307A50E6A3C9

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  2016

History

• Received
  08 Sept 2016
• Accepted
  25 Oct 2016