First record of Albunea carabus (Decapoda, Anomura, Hippidea) from the Algarve coast, South Portugal

Abstract

During an annual bivalve dredge survey undertaken in April 2005 along the Portuguese coast, one specimen of the sand crab Albunea carabus was collected. This is the first record of this species on the Portuguese continental shelf. The individual found was a male with 11.31 mm carapace length and was collected off Faro at 3 m depth in a sandy area considerably hydrodynamic during winter. This occurrence is one of the few records outside the Mediterranean Sea. A short review of previous findings on this species is presented.

Keywords:

• Albunea carabus
• Algarve
• Portugal
• sand crab

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the crew of the R/V Tellina and the IPIMAR technicians (José Luís Sofia and Tibério Simões) for their assistance in collecting the material; João Tata Regala for his collaboration in the laboratory sampling; and Paulo Vasconcelos for his valuable comments on the early version of the paper.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark