Several obligate associate crabs and shrimps species may co-occur and interact within a single coral host, leading to patterns of associations that can provide essential ecological services. However, knowledge of the dynamics of interactions in this system is limited, partly because identifying species involved in the network remains challenging. In this study, we assessed the diversity of the ...

i CONTENTS iv FIGURES viii TABLES xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiv AUTHOR’S DECLARATION xvi CHAPTER

A survey of studies examining crab and lobster predation on hard-shelled molluscs indicated that most predators prefer small-sized prey when offered a range of sizes. I suggest that this pattern of preference for small-sized prey can be explained by considering the mechanical cost of predation. If predation costs are assumed to be non-renewable, then the probability of exhausting them can be in...

Relationships of diversity, distribution and abundance of benthic decapods in intertidal and shallow subtidal waters to 10 m depth are explored based on data obtained using a standardized protocol of globally-distributed samples. Results indicate that decapod species richness overall is low within the nearshore, typically ranging from one to six taxa per site (mean = 4.5). Regionally the Gulf o...

– Two new species of freshwater crabs in the genus Parathelphusa H. Milne Edwards, 1853, are described from Palawan Island in the Philippines. The new species are each easily distinguished from their closest congeners by characters of the male first pleopod, in conjunction with a unique combination of other morphological characters. A key to the Parathelphusa species of the Philippines is provi...

A new species of crinoid associated Periclimenes, P. rincewindi sp. nov. is described from the Bay Islands (Honduras) in the Caribbean. The species associates with the swimming crinoid, Analcidometra armata and displays a unique colour pattern. Morphologically, the new species is closely related to the other known crinoid associates in the Caribbean, specifically Periclimenes crinoidalis, from ...

Two specimens representing two hippolytid genera were sampled recently from the Coral Seamount, southwest Indian Ocean, at 732 m water depth. Lebbeus ketophilos sp. nov. and Eualus oreios sp. nov. are described and illustrated and their morphologies are compared with those of previously described species. The new species are closest in morphology to L. indicus Holthuis, 1947 and E. kinzeri Tief...

A new porcellanid crab, Lissoporcellana demani n. sp. is described based on material from the Beibu Bay in the northern South China Sea. The new species can be distinguished from other congeners by the shape of rostrum, form of fixed finger of smaller cheliped and armature of lateral margins of carapace. The poorly known species L. streptochiroides (Johnson, 1970), which resembles L. demani n. ...

A new species, Cherax snowden sp. n., from the Oinsok River Drainage, Sawiat District in the central part of the Kepala Burung (Vogelkop) Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia, is described, figured and compared with the closest related species, Cherax holthuisi Lukhaup & Pekny, 2006. This species is collected and exported for ornamental purposes and its commercial name in the pet trade is "orange t...

The giant deep-sea lobster genus Acanthacaris Bate, 1888 is reported for the first time from Taiwan. The single specimen with a total length of 36 cm was collected near a cold seep off southwestern Taiwan at about 1300 m deep and identified as A. tenuimana Bate, 1888.