Sand Crabs of the Genus Albunea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Albuneidae) from the Ryukyu Islands, Southwestern Japan, with the Description of a New Species

Abstract

Three species of the anomuran sand crab genus Albunea Weber, 1795, including a new species, are reported from the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan. Albunea okinawaensis sp. nov. resembles A. symmysta (Linnaeus, 1758) in the morphologies of the setose carapace grooves, dactylus of pereopod III, and posterior margin of the male telson, but differs in the shapes of both the distal segment of the ocular peduncle and the male telson. Albunea microps Miers, 1878 and A. groeningi Boyko, 2002 are recorded for the first time from the Ryukyu Islands, although both species have been reported from the Japanese mainland.