Meeting Abstract

S8-2.3  Saturday, Jan. 5  Is Podotremata Monophyletic (Decapoda: Brachyura)? TAVARES, M.; Museum of Zoology, Sao Paulo mdst@usp.br

Whether the Brachyura are monophyletic or not has long been disputed by decapodologists. One persistent problem is whether the Podotremata Guinot, 1977 (the so called primitive crabs), or part thereof, belongs to the Brachyura or not. The Podotremata were formally placed in the Brachyura by Latreille in 1802. Because they share with Anomura (and remaining decapods) the female gonopore on the coxa of the third pereopod, and their abdomen and abdominal appendages also share overall similarities, H. Milne Edwards (1832) argued that the Podotremata should be transferred from the Brachyura to the Anomura. Since then, the Podotremata have been removed to the Anomura or retained in the Brachyura with each successive revision. A number of taxonomic schemes have been proposed accordingly. I submit the view that the Podotremata share at least one unambiguous synapomorphy, namely the double spermatheca not found in any other Decapopda so far.