Description of a new genus and new species of a fully arboreal crab (Decapoda: Brachyura: Gecarcinucidae) from the Western Ghats, India, with notes on the ecology of arboreal crabs

Abstract

A new genus and new species of tree crab is described from the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in Kerala, southern India. Kani maranjandun. gen., n. sp., is substantially different from all congeners in a suite of characters, notably the diagnostic carapace and male abdominal structure, as well as the conspicuously elongated ambulatory legs. The species is wholly arboreal, living in tree-hollows or the canopy.