Pilumnoides inglei

Taxonomy

Pilumnoides inglei was described in 1987 during a revision of the genus Pilumnoides by Danièle Guinot and Enrique Macpherson. It was named after Ray W. Ingle, who worked at the Natural History Museum and wrote the important book British Crabs.

Description

Although Pilumnoides inglei resembles P. perlatus very closely, the carapace and chelae (claws) of P. inglei are smoother than in P. perlatus. The known adult specimens vary in size from 5.5 x to 11.3 x.

Collections

Further specimens were collected by G. W. Dock from the vessel Micfield at Plymouth in 1913. Since 1913, no further specimens have been found.

Distribution

While the majority of Pilumnoides species occur around the Americas, Pilumnoides inglei is only known from a few specimens collected on the south coast of England. Prior to 1987, specimens of Pilumnoides found in the British Isles had been identified as Pilumnoides perlatus, a species native to the Pacific coasts of South America. These specimens were thought to have been introduced by ships trading between South America and Europe.

In their 1987 revision, Guinot and Macpherson separated the English specimens as a new species, and reappraised the hypotheses about its natural range. They concluded that the species had never been found in its natural habitat, but expected that the natural habitat would be located off the coast of England, and in the seas of northern Europe, rather than further afield. Similarly, Guinot and Macpherson described the new species Pilumnoides rubus for specimens from South Africa, which were previously thought to be an introduced population of P. perlatus.

References

References

1. [[Danièle Guinot]] & [[Enrique Macpherson]]. (1987). "Révision du genre ''Pilumnoides'' Lucas, 1844, avec description de quatre espèces nouvelles et création de Pilumnoidinae subfam. nov. (Crustacea Decapoda Brachyura)". Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.
2. Michael Türkay. (2011). "''Pilumnoides inglei'' Guinot & Macpherson, 1987".
3. Hans G. Hansson. "Raymond William Ingle". [[University of Gothenburg]].
4. Rupert Vallentin. (1900). "Notes on the fauna of Falmouth from 1st January to 10th September, 1898, and from May, 1899, to the end of that year". [[Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall]].
5. (1997). "Non-native marine species in British waters: a review and directory". [[Joint Nature Conservation Committee]].