Pachycheles laevidactylus Ortmann 1892
Creators: name: Ferreira, Luciane Augusto De Azevedo
name: Melo, Gustavo Augusto Schmidt De
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Decapoda
Porcellanidae
Pachycheles
Pachycheles laevidactylus

description: Pachycheles laevidactylus Ortmann, 1892
(Fig. 1 H)
Pachycheles laevidactylus Ortmann, 1892: 266, pl. 12, fig. 1 (type-locality: not mentioned; probably Brazil). Pachycheles grossimanus Ortmann, 1897: 292.
Pachicheles [sic] rudis —Moreira, 1901: 32, 91 [non P. r u di s Stimpson] [error]. Pachycheles haigae Rodrigues da Costa, 1960: 21, fig. 1–4.
Material examined. Brazil: Bahia—Abrolhos, 3 males, 1 ovigerous female (MZUSP-12434). Espírito Santo— Canal de Guarapari, 1 ovigerous female (MZUSP-19527). Rio de Janeiro—Baía de Guanabara, Forte de Santa Cruz, 3 males, 3 ovigerous females (MZUSP-19533); 18 males, 2 females, 12 ovigerous females (MZUSP-18723). São Paulo—Ubatuba, Praia Grande, 2 males, 4 females (MZUSP-19545). Paraná—Paranaguá, Ilha do Mel, Praia de Fora, 10 males, 3 females, 10 ovigerous females (MZUSP-9558). Santa Catarina—Bombinhas, Praia das Bombas, 1 male, 2 ovigerous females (MZUSP-19510). Rio Grande do Sul—Torres, 1 male (MNRJ-3825). Argentina: Porto de Mar del Plata, 2 males, 1 female (MZUSP-17290); Ponto Quequen, 1 male (MZUSP-20477).
Recognition characters. Carapace subquadrate, as long as broad in males, slightly broader than long in females; lateral margin slightly upturned; posterolateral region plicate. Front with tuft of short plumose setae. Outer orbital angle produced into acute tooth. Chelipeds robust, subequal, granulate; carpus with small granules, more evident on extensor margin, granules arranged in 3 longitudinal rows and more or less regular, flexor margin produced into tridentate lobe; propodus broad, flatenned, granulate; fingers of major cheliped with hiatus, tuft of dense setae. Walking legs rugose, pubescent; propodus with 4 spines on flexor margin, dactylus with 4 spines on flexor margin. Gonopods present in males. Telson composed of 5 plates.
Habitat. Intertidal region; found in large numbers in mussel beds, algae tufts and under rocks (Veloso 1999) and associated with bryozoans and polychaetes.
Geographic distribution. Western Atlantic—Brazil (Maranhão and from Pernambuco to Rio Grande do Sul); Uruguay, Rocha; and Argentina, Mar del Plata, Miramar and Monte Hermoso.
Remarks. Ortmann (1892) originally described P. laevidactylus from Brazil. Later, Ortmann (1897) mentioned that the type-locality was not correct and synonymized the species with P. grossimanus (Guérin- Menéville, 1835) from the eastern Pacific. However, according to Harvey & De Santo (1996), specimens of the two species differ in some respects, and they should not be synonymized.
Rodrigues da Costa (1960) described P. haigae Rodrigues da Costa, 1960 based on the material which had been identified by Moreira (1901) to P. rudis Stimpson, 1859. Harvey & De Santo (1996) concluded that P. laevidactylus was identical to P. ha i ga e, and both species were synonymized.
description: Published as part of Ferreira, Luciane Augusto De Azevedo & Melo, Gustavo Augusto Schmidt De, 2016, Porcelain crabs from Brazil (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Porcellanidae), pp. 175-194 in Zootaxa 4092 (2) on pages 181-182, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/261197