Evolution & Systematics
Taxonomy
of the specimen of spider crab collected at Heron Island:
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phyllum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Malacostraca
Order:
Decapoda Latreille, 1803
Infraorder:
Brachyura Linnaeus, 1758
Super
family: Majoidea Samouelle, 1819
Family:
Epialtidae MacLeay, 1838
Genus:
Hyastenus White, 1847
The family Epialtidae is made up
of 4 subfamilies: Epialtinae, Tychiinae, Pliosomatinae and Pisinae. The genus Hyastenus belongs to the subfamily
Pisinae Dana, 1851 (Ng et al.,
2008).
Hyastenus used
to be in another family, called Majidae. However, recent studies changed its
taxonomy, moving Hyastenus to
Epialtidae (World Register
of Marine Species).
The
specimen collected is likely to be a species called Hyastenus campbelli. However, the thick encrustations on its
carapace make it difficult to distinguish this species from Hyastenus elatus, which is very similar
in appearance.
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