A revision of the genus 0valipes Rathbun, 1898 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Portunidae)

Abstract

Recent workers have recognized five species in the genus Ovalipes: O. ocellatus (Herbst, 1799), O. punctatus (de Haan, 1833), O. guadulpens is (Saussure, 1858), O. iridescens (Miers, 1886), and O. molleri (Ward, I933). However, five species have been confused under the name of O. punctatus and these comprise: O. punctatus (de Haan, 1833), O. trimaculatus (de Haan, 1833), O. catharus (White, 1843), O. australiensis n.sp., and O. elongatus n.sp. A further new species, O. georgei, has appeared in recent collections from Western Australia, and it seems that there may be two forms of O. guadulpensis. The new species are described and the remaining species redescribed. This has necessitated a redescription of the generic features and consideration of the possibility of either dividing the genus into several genera or erecting subgenera. Neither of these possibilities has been followed, but, instead, two groups have been designated (A and B), each with two subgroups. Thus the O. punctatus subgroup contains O. punctatus, O. trimaculatus, O. catharus, O. australiensis, and O. elongatus, and, with the O. georgei subgroup comprising only O. georgei, makes up Group A. The O. iridescens subgroup comprises O. iridescens and O. molleri, and with the O. ocellatus subgroup comprising O. ocellatus and O. guadulpensis makes up Group B.