New morphological and distributional information on Homolodromiidae and Homolidae (Decapoda: Brachyura) from the Americas, with description of a new species and comments onwestern Pacific species

Abstract

Seventeen crab species of Homolodromiidae and Homolidae, in seven genera, are recognized in the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas. The genus Dicranodromia A. Milne-Edwards, 1880, is recorded for the first time from the eastern Pacific with a new species described from the Galápagos Islands. Nine species, five Homolodromiidae and four Homolidae, are taxonomically evaluated and circumscribed based on morphological information, their geographic and bathymetric distribution clarified and updated, and the similarities and differences of each with other members of the families discussed. Photographs, SEM photomicrographs and line drawings for selected species, including notes on habitat, nomenclature, and distinguishing features, are provided. Biramous uropods and complete pleopod formula in males are discovered to occur in juveniles of Homola minima Guinot and Richer de Forges, 1995, providing evidence that homoloidian and eubrachyuran pleonal locking-system (homoloidian and the eubrachyuran sockets) are not homologous. A checklist of all homolodromiid and homolid species known from both ocean sides of the Americas, with their bathymetric ranges, is presented. The diagnostic characters of one western Pacific species, Lamoha williamsi (Takeda, 1980), are reevaluated. © Copyright 2014 by The Crustacean Society.