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| Diogenes spongicola
Komai, Ravinesh & Kumar, 2018
ovigerous female (sl 2.2 mm) and housing shell covered with Callyspongia diffusa.
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Abstract
A new species of the hermit crab genus Diogenes Dana, 1851, Diogenes spongicola, is described and illustrated on the basis of material collected from two locations off southern India. It appears close to D. takedai Rahayu, 2012 among about 70 congeners, but easily differentiated from the latter by the spinulose anterolateral margins of the shield, the article 2 of the antennal peduncle armed only with one distal spine, the longer, spinose antennal acicle, the absence of prominent spines on the ventrolateral margin of the cheliped meri, and the different color of the cheliped palm. Specimens of the new species were all collected from cavities of a callyspongiid sponge Callyspongia diffusa (Ridley, 1884), suggesting a possible association between the hermit crab and sponge.
Keywords: Crustacea, Association, Callyspongia diffusa, Diogenes spongicola, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
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| FIGURE 5. Diogenes spongicola n. sp., paratypes, showing colour in life. paratype, male (sl 1.7 mm), DABFUK/ARAN98. |
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| FIGURE 5. Diogenes spongicola n. sp., paratypes, showing colour in life. paratype, ovigerous female (sl 2.2 mm) and housing shell covered with Callyspongia diffusa, DABFUK/AR-AN103. |
Family Diogenidae dana, 1851
Diogenes spongicola n. sp.
Etymology. The name is a combination of the Latin spongia (= sponge) and -cola (= dweller), in reference to
the possible association of the new species with the callyspongiid sponge Callyspongia diffusa.
Tomoyuki Komai, Raveendhiran Ravinesh and Appukuttannair Biju Kumar. 2018. A New Species of the Hermit Crab Genus Diogenes Dana, 1851 (Decapoda: Anomura: Diogenidae) from southern India. Zootaxa. 4504(2); 243–252. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4504.2.5
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