A new species of portunid crab (Brachyura: Portunidae) from southern Madagascar and central Philippines is described. Monomia calla sp. nov. is most similar in morphology to M. lecromi (Moosa, 1996) from the Chesterfield Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and M. rubromarginata (Lanchester, 1900) from the South China Sea, Singapore, Malay Archipelago and the northern half of Australia. T...

The freshwater crabs of the Neotropics comprise 311 species in two families (Pseudothelphusidae and Trichodactylidae) and one or both of these families are found in all of the countries in the Neotropical region (except for Chile and some of the Caribbean islands). Colombia (102 species, 81% endemic) and Mexico (67 species, 95% endemic) are the biodiversity hotspots of freshwater crab species r...

A recent study has found that although, ordinarily, cuttlefish hatchlings prefer shrimp-like prey, when visually exposed to crabs in the first hours of day one, they later prefer crabs to shrimps. As the development of this preference occurs during a short sensitive phase, does not depend on food ingestion and is long lasting, it fulfils all the criteria for imprinting, a phenomenon more usuall...

Numerous environmental factors can influence body size. Comparing populations in different ecological contexts is one potential approach to elucidating the most critical of such factors. In the current study, we found that the body size of the land hermit crab Coenobita rugosus was significantly larger on Dongsha Island in the South China Sea than on other eco-islands around Southern Taiwan. We...

Glutathione S-transferase (GST), an enzyme system which conjugates glutathione to a vanety of xenobiotics with electrophllic centres was found dunng the GEEP Workshop m the digesbve glands of the s n d httorina httorea and the mussel Myllus edulis, and in the hepatopancreas of the crab Carcinus maenas GST activity was significantly higher in crabs from 2 polluted sites m Langesundfjord Norway r...

Freshwater crab sister group relationships with marine eubrachyuran families were investigated[ A morphology!based cladistic analysis was conducted on representatives of the freshwater crab families Deckeniidae\ Gecarcinucidae\ Parathelphusidae\ Potamidae\ Potamonautidae\ Pseudothelphusidae\ and Trichodactylidae using a disparate assemblage of marine heterotreme and thoracotreme brachyurans as ...