Family PARAPAGURIDAE Smith, 1882

Oncopagurus minutus [from Alcock 1905: pl. 10 fig. 3]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Parapaguridae Smith, S.I. 1882. Report on the Crustacea. Part 1. Decapoda. Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, on the east coast of the United States, during the summer of 1880, by the U.S. Coast Survey Steamer "Blake", Commander J.R. Bartlett, U.S.N., commanding. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 10(1): 1-108 [20].

  Type genus:

   Parapagurus Smith, 1879.

Introduction

Parapagurids are unusual hermit crabs from deep water, recorded from shelf to hadal depths (>5000 m) where they may be extraordinarily common in trawl samples. They are especially conspicuous on continental slopes. Whereas typical shallow-water hermits sometimes carry a solitary sea-anemone on their shell home, parapagurids take this association one step further. Whereas most species carry gastropod shells for protection, many others live symbiotically with just anthozoans (sea-anemones or zoantharians) instead. The sea anemone settles on a gastropod shell inhabited by the young hermit crab, then covers and extends the shell to produce a chitinous structure termed a carcinoecium. In some other parapagurid genera the home is made only of a cavity in a flat gelatinous colony of a dozen or more zoantharians (Epizoanthus).

This family of deep water hermit crabs was resurrected from synonymy with the Paguridae by de Saint Laurent (1972). Since then the Australian fauna has been well studied by Lemaitre (1996, 1999, 2004a, b, 2013, 2014). Parapagurids are found in all oceans, and typically live in continental shelf and slope depths ranging from about 200 to 5000 metres, although there are some records from as shallow as 50 metres.

Diagnosis

Right cheliped larger than left. Maxilliped 1 exopod without flagellum. Maxillipeds 3 widely separate at base.

Diagnosis References

Poore, G.C.B.,& Ahyong, S.T. 2023. Marine decapod Crustacea. A guide to families and genera of the World. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing pp. 928.

General References

de Saint Laurent, M. 1972. Sur la famille des Parapaguridae Smith, 1892. Description de Typhlopagurus foresti gen. nov., et de quinze espèces ou sous-espèces nouvelles de Parapagurus Smith (Crustacea, Decapoda). Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde 42(2): 97-123

Lemaitre, R, 2004. A review of Strobopagurus Lemaitre, 1989 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Paguroidea: Parapaguridae), with description of a new species. Scientia Marina 68: 355-372

Lemaitre, R. 1996. Hermit crabs of the family Parapaguridae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura) from Australia: species of Strobopagurus Lemaitre, 1989, Sympagurus Smith, 1883 and two new genera. Records of the Australian Museum 48: 163-221

Lemaitre, R. 1999. Crustacea Decapoda: A review of the species of the genus Parapagurus Smith, 1879 (Parapaguridae) from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 180: 303-378

Lemaitre, R. 2014. A worldwide taxonomic and distributional synthesis of the genus Oncopagurus Lemaitre, 1996 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Parapaguridae), with descriptions of nine new species. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 62: 210–301

Lemiatre, R. 2004. A worldwide review of hermit crab species of the genus Sympagurus Smith, 1883 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Parapaguridae). In: Marshall, B.A., and Richer de Forges, B. (eds), Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos, Vol. 23. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 191: 85-149

History of changes