The Benthic and Pelagic Habitats of the Red Crab, Pleuroncodes planipes

• Main Author: Carl M. B Oydl
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1895
• Subjects: Antarctic; Baja; Grim; Pacific; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.494.2707; http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/7411/v21n3-394-403.pdf;jsessionid=3C623D76C529C4241D2835A5668CA80A?sequence=1

described anomuran crab were washed ashore at Monterey, California. These, along with some similar animals found in oceanic waters ( 24°N, 130 0 W) , were sent to William Stimp-son, who was describing the crustacean ma-terial collected by the N orth Pacific Exploring Expedition. Stimpson described both the Mon-terey and the high seas specimens as a new genus and a new species, Ples roncodes planipes, assigned to the family Galatheidae (Stimpson, 1860). The "red crab " or "pelagic crab " (Fig. 1) is familiar to inhabitants of Baja California and occasionally is seen along southern Cali-fornia beaches, where large numbers of these animals are at times washed up and left stranded by receding tides. Thei r brill iant red coloration, together with their relatively large size, makes such occurrences of these animals a striking phenomenon. The present study was undertaken as an investigation into the pelagic distribut ion and possible benthic nature of the species; pr ior to this study P. planipes was believed to be only planktonic. Members of the family Galatheidae are typi-cally benthic when adult and are commonly known as "squat lobsters. " Larvae of all the species are pelagic for at least a short time, and presumably the small postlarvae can alter-nate between the plankton and the benthos be-fore assuming an exclusively benthic life. Two antarctic species, M ttnida gregaria ( Fabricius) 1793 and M. sttbmgosa (W hi te) 1847, may be either pelag ic or benthic as adults, but are more commonly benthic (Matthews, 1932). The young of M. gregaria- the so-called Grim othea stage-are predominantly pelagic and have been reported on several occasions as so numerous that they color the sea bright red over large areas (Matthews, 1932; Bary, 1953). P. planipes probably has evolved from stock that was benthic, for of the 230 described 1 Institu te of Oceanography, D alhous ie Un iversity, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Manuscript received July 21