Seventeen species of Dorippinae, distributed among eight genera, are recognized from the Indo-West Pacific region. The genera include Dorippe, with five species, Paradorippe, containing four species, Dorippoides, with two species, Heikea, new genus, recognized for two species formerly assigned to the genus Nobilum, and Medorippe, Neodorippe, Nobilum, and Philippidorippe, each containing one species. Representatives of all but one of the recognized genera of Dorippinae, Phyllodorippe Manning and Holthuis, 1981, containing one West African species, occur in the Indo-West Pacific. One genus and species that occurs in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, Medorippe lanata (Linnaeus, 1767), is known from off South Africa and Madagascar. Otherwise the members of this subfamily are restricted to Indo-West Pacific localities. Several species of Dorippinae hold objects or species of anemones on their backs with their modified fourth and fifth legs, and representatives of several species play prominent roles in Chinese and Japanese folklore. In general, distribution patterns of known species are limited; no species extends across the Indo-West Pacific from the Red Sea and South Africa to Japan.

View full abstract