A new species of squat lobster of the genus Munida (Galatheoidea, Munididae) from the Red Sea

Este artículo contiene 10 páginas, 5 figuras.During a deep-water expedition to the Red Sea in 2013, an unusual specimen of squat lobster belonging to the genus Munida was collected off Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, at a depth of 320 m. This specimen is unique in having the pterygostomial flap visible from the dorsal side, the feature linking it to two eastern Pacific species, M. bapensis Hendrickx, 2000 and M. macrobrachia Hendrickx, 2003. The new species (M. tuerkayi) is readily distinguished from the eastern Pacific species by having the gastric region with numerous instead of less numerous spines, by having sternite 7 with three distinct carinae on each side, and by having the antennular basal article with two distal spines subequal instead of different in size. Munida tuerkayi was found associated with live colonies of the scleractinian coral Eguchipsammia fistula (Alcock, 1902).LB received funds from EU-FP7 Projects CoralFISH (contract no. 213144), HERMIONE (contract no. 226354), and the Hessian initiative for the development of scientific and economic excellence (LOEWE) at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt a. M., Germany.Peer reviewe