Description and ecological distribution of a new frog crab (Cructacea, Brachyura, Raninidae) from northern New Zealand waters, with keys to recent Raninid Genera and Notosceles species: Tuhinga 11

Tuhinga 11: 47 - 71

ABSTRACT: Notosceles pepeke n.sp. is described from 21 collections between depths of about 50 and over 300 metres off Norfolk Island and the Wanganella Bank on the Norfolk Ridge, from the southern end of the Three Kings Ridge, from the Bay of Plenty, from the East Cape Ridge, and off the Kermadec Islands on the Kermadec Ridge. It is closely related to N. viaderi Ward, 1942 from off Mauritius and Reunion in the western Indian Ocean, Hawaii, and French Polynesia, and to N. ecuadorensis (Rathbun, 1935) partially redescribed here, from off Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and Baja California in the eastern Pacific. N. pepeke was taken from bottoms of mixed shell, sand, bryozoan rubble, and coral, and is partly sympatric with the only other known New Zealand raninid, Lyreidus tridentatus de Haan, 1841. Keys are provided for the recognition of 12 extant raninid genera and 6 extant Notosceles species.

KEYWORDS: New Zealand Brachyura, Raninidae, identification key to raninid genera, Notosceles pepeke new species, identification key to Notosceles species, frog crabs.