Spider Crabs, Majidae, are a distinctive group of Crabs with carapaces that are longer than they are wide and come to a point at the front. They have extremely elongate legs for Crabs, and tend to be covered in bristles, which are often covered in Algae, providing a form of camouflage.
In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 29 November 2017, Peter Ng of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore, Raveendhiran Ravinesh of the Department of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries at the University of Kerala, and Samuthirapandian Ravichandran of the Center of Advanced Study in Marine Biology at the Annamalai University, describe a new species of Spider Crab from the Bay of Bengal.
The new species is placed in the genus Pleistacantha, and given the specific name kannu, in honour of the late T. Kannupandi of the Center of Advanced Study in Marine Biology at the Annamalai University,for his work on Crustaceans. This species has longer legs than other members of the genus, and these are free of spines. They are orange-brown in colour.
Pleistacantha kannu, colour in life. (A) Male (length 106.2 mm, width 87.0 mm), (B) ovigerous female (length 84.4 mm, width 71.5 mm). Ng (2017).
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