Nguyen Thanh Son1, Ng P.K.L.2 2021. A revision of the swimming crabs of the Indo – West Pacific Xiphonectes hastatoides (Fabricius, 1798) species complex (Crustacea: Brachyura: Portunidae) // Arthropoda Selecta. Vol.30. No.3: 386–404 [in English].
1 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore; and Department of Applied Zoology, Faculty of Biology, VNU University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 334 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam. E-mail: nts@vnu.edu.vn
2 Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, 2 Conservatory Drive, Singapore 117377, Republic of Singapore. E-mail: peterng@nus.edu.sg
doi: 10.15298/arthsel.30.3.11
ABSTRACT. The Xiphonectes hastatoides (Fabricius, 1798) species complex (Brachyura: Portunidae) is revised from a study of the types. Members of this species group are defined by the structures of the anterolateral margin, posteroexternal margin of the carapace, shape of the third maxilliped merus, as well as armatures of the carpus and merus of the cheliped, and carpus of the swimming leg. Of the seven currently known species four are recognised here: X. hastatoides s.str., X. arabicus (Nobili, 1905), X. unidens (Laurie, 1906), and X. pseudohastatoides (Yang et Tang, 2006). Three species, Neptunus (Hellenus) tweediei Shen, 1937, Portunus trilobatus Stephenson, 1972, and P. dayawanensis Chen, 1986, are synonymised under X. unidens, a species previously incorrectly synonymised under X. hastatoides. In addition, two new species are described, X. vassilyi sp.n. and X. subtilis sp.n., and can be distinguished from X. hastatoides s.str. by the structure of the median frontal teeth, posteroexternal spine on the carapace and structure of the male first gonopod.
KEY WORDS: Portunidae, Xiphonectes hastatoides, species complex, taxonomy, revision, new species, synonymies.