Abstract
Abstract Two boxes in the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, were found to contain the dried type material of the land crabs Cardisoma hirtipes Dana, 1851, and Cardisoma obesum Dana, 1851 (Gecarcinidae). The types of the common Pacific land crab, C. hirtipes, were believed to have been lost and a neotype had been designated in earlier revisions. Cardisoma obesum Dana, 1851 is currently regarded as a junior subjective synonym of Cardisoma carnifex (Herbst, 1796).
Highlights
Two specimens of gecarcinid crabs were found in the dried collection of the U.S National Museum of Natural History (USNM), Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., which have been forgotten by taxonomists working on this family
The specimens were identified as the types of Cardisoma hirtipes Dana, 1851, and Cardisoma obesum Dana, 1851
Ng and Clark (2014) examined the specimen and argued that this was not a type, belonging to another species, Cardisoma carnifex (Herbst, 1796), instead. They commented that since there were no extant types of the species, the neotype male specimen from Fiji designated by Ng and Davie (2012) remained the valid type of C. hirtipes
Summary
Two specimens of gecarcinid crabs were found in the dried collection of the U.S National Museum of Natural History (USNM), Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., which have been forgotten by taxonomists working on this family. The specimens were identified as the types of Cardisoma hirtipes Dana, 1851, and Cardisoma obesum Dana, 1851. Type material of Cardisoma hirtipes and C. obesum Cardisoma hirtipes Dana, 1851: 253 (for complete synonymy, see Ng and Shih, 2014: 112).
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