Menippe nodifrons Stimpson, 1859

Muñoz, Isabel, García-Raso, J. Enrique, Chillón, Begoña Sánchez & Cuesta, Jose A., 2025, Marine crabs from African waters housed in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC): An opportunity for biogeographic and systematic studies. Part I: Heterotremata (Decapoda, Brachyura), European Journal of Taxonomy 996, pp. 1-94 : 24-25

Menippe nodifrons Stimpson, 1859

Figs 22−23

Material examined

EQUATORIAL GUINEA − San Juan Cape • 2 ♀♀ (49×32.8, 41.6 ×28.1), 1 ♂ (33.9 ×23.7); Muni River; 1901; M. Martínez de la Escalera leg.; MNCN20.04/03349 .

MAURITIUS • 1 unsexed (dry specimen); MNCN 20.04/00189.

Remarks

In Fig. 23G , the text written by G. Nobili (1906) where he identifies the 3 specimens included in MNCN20.04/03349 is provided.

The specimen MNCN20.04/00189 is a dry preserved specimen, which is not dated, but according to the MNCN archive, it already appeared in the catalogue from 1910, and its collector could be Guérin-Méneville, so it may have been collected around 1850. The specimen was identified as Menippe rumphii (Fabricius, 1798) , a species from the waters of the Indian Ocean; however, after comparing it with specimens of M. rumphii (see Holthuis 1993; Vartak et al. 2015; Naderloo 2017; Al-Hindi 2019), we found that the first two anterolateral teeth of the carapace are prominent and rounded, as occurs in M. nodifrons , and not are in M. rumphii , which are mostly flattened.

The origin of the MNCN20.04/00189 specimen should be considered with caution. On many occasions, we cannot guarantee the provenance of some ancient specimens housed in the collection, as could be the case here However, all the dry specimens reviewed in this work and part of an exhibition at the MNCN, originate from the Indian Ocean, and this fact leads us to consider its origin as correct. This reidentification of the specimen as M. nodifrons provides the first record of this species not only in the Mauritian waters but also in East Africa and Indian Ocean. Menippe nodifrons is recorded from the Western and Eastern Atlantic, along the western African coast from Mauritania ( Fransen 1991) to Angola and Cabo Verde Islands ( Manning & Holthuis 1981).

For identification, see also Nobili (1906) and for similar species Rathbun (1930), Capart (1951), Monod (1956), Holthuis (1993), Vartak et al. (2015), Naderloo (2017) and Al-Hindi (2019).

Figures

Fig. 22. Menippe nodifrons Stimpson, 1859, MNCN20.04/00189.

Fig. 23. Menippe nodifrons Stimpson, 1859. A−F. Specimens MNCN20.04/03349. G. Text by G. Nobili from 1906 in which he identifies the 3 specimens here included. Scale bars = 1 cm.