| Abstract |
Two brachyuran crabs collected at Socotra Island (Republic of Yemen) in the northwestern part of
the Indian Ocean turned out to be conspecific with Sphaerocarcinus bedoti Zehntner, 1894, so far only
known from a single female collected at Amboina, Indonesia, without any information on its ecology.
Based on the new material and especially the availability of a male for comparison of the morphology
of the copulatory appendages (gonopods), Sphaerocarcinus Zehntner, 1894, is synonymised with
CaphyraGuérin, 1832. The extremely convex and globose carapace shape of the type specimen from
Amboina turned out to be atypical and possibly caused by parasitic infection. Ecologically, C. bedoti,
like most species of the genus Caphyra, lives epibiontic on soft corals (Octocorallia: Alcyonaria). |
