Revision of Vercoia Baker (Crustacea : Decopoda : Crangonidae)

Abstract

Until recently, the rare crangonid genus Vercoia had been known from three specimens of the only species, V. gibbosa Baker, 1904, collected from South Australia and the Marshall Is. Additional records of three further specimens from South Australia and Queensland are provided in this study, as well as a redescription of the species, based on the holotype and four other specimens. Only females and juveniles of this species are known. The immature females differ from the ovigerous ones in the development of median-sternal structures on the thorax and abdomen. A second species, V. socotrana, sp. nov., based on a single ovigerous female from off Socotra I., north-western Indian Ocean, is described. It may be easily distinguished from the type species by the presence of an extremely broad merus on the second pereiopod.