The description of a new species of the Neotropical land crab genus Gecarcinus Leach, 1814 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Gecarcinidae)

Abstract

In this contribution a new species of the land crab genus Gecarcinus Leach, 1814, from the Neotropical Pacific coast of South America is described and illustrated. In addition to its unique body color, Gecarcinus nobilii sp. n. is distinguished from congeners by a distinctly wider carapace front and differences in the shape of the infraorbital margin. The new species is not isolated from Gecarcinus populations from the Pacific coast of Central America by an insurmountable geographic barrier. Considering the closure of the Panamanian Isthmus as a calibration point for morphological divergence between the trans-isthmian mainland populations of Gecarcinus, the virtual lack of morphological differentiation (other than color) between them and the distinctness of G. nobilii sp. n. suggests that G. nobilii sp. n. evolved from a common ancestor before the Isthmus closed.