Symethis Explained

Symethis is a genus of crabs. It differs from other genera in the family Raninidae by the lack of ornamentation of the male first pleopods and by the reduced number of gills (7 pairs rather than 8 pairs), and is therefore placed in a separate subfamily, Symethinae.^[1]

There are three extant species:^[2]

• Symethis corallica Davie, 1989 – Chesterfield Reefs, Coral Sea ^[3]
• Symethis garthi Goeke, 1981 – Pacific coast of Panama ^[1]
• Symethis variolosa (Fabricius, 1793) – western Atlantic Ocean, from North Carolina, to Bahia, Brazil ^[1]

One further species,^[4] Symethis johnsoni is known from fossils of Paleogene age,^[5] but may belong in the subfamily Lyreidinae rather than in Symethis.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Gary D. Goeke . 1981 . Symethinae, new subfamily, and Symethis garthi new species, and the transfer of Raninoides ecuadorensis to Notosceles (Raninidae: Brachyura: Gymnopleura) . . 93 . 4 . 971–981 .
2. Peter Davie . 2010 . Symethis Weber, 1795 . 416034 . January 1, 2012.
3. P. J. F. Davie . 1989 . Smethis corallica sp. nov. (Crustacea, Brachyura, Raninidae), the first member of the Smethinae to be recorded . Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle . 4th . 11 . A2 . 425–430 .
4. . 2009 . Suppl. 21 . 1–109 . A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans . Sammy De Grave . N. Dean Pentcheff . Shane T. Ahyong . etal.
5. David A. Waugh, Rodney M. Feldmann & Carrie E. Schweitzer . 2009 . Systematic evaluation of raninid cuticle microstructure . . 35 . 15–41 .