Leach, 1814
Carapace with rostrum well developed, spinous, cervical groove delimiting anterior and posterior region of about equal size; linea thalassinica present. Ocular peduncles cylindrical, cornea terminal. Antennal scale reduced. First maxilliped with slender exopod provided with terminal flagellum, endopod short and epipod rudimentary or absent; second with slender exopod and very short epipod turned internally; third with exopod, endopod pediform, without dentate crest, epipod vestigial or absent. Neither pleurobranch nor epipods on pereiopods; first pereiopod equal, chelate, subchelate or simple; second to fourth pereiopods simple; fifth pereiopod subchelate or chelate. First pleopod present in female only, second to fifth similar, foliaceous, without appendix interna. Exopod of uropods not lobed.
Type Species: by monotypy: Cancer (Astacus) stellatus Montagu, 1808.
The species of this genus are burrowers in mud or sandy mud. All the species treated here are used as bait for fishing. Only one of them, U. pusilla is said to be used for human consumption. For most Upogebia species, very little or no information on use as food or bait is available. Therefore, it is well possible that many more species than those included in the catalogue are actually consumed and most likely all species inhabiting accessible places in sufficiently great numbers qualify for use as bait.
Remarks:
The species of Upogebia can easily be distinguished from those of Callianassa enumerated here, by the following features: the shape of the carapace, which in the present genus ends in a broad, flat rostrum, sometimes tridentate anteriorly and reaching beyond the eyes; the dorsal surface of the rostrum, which continues onto the anterior part of the carapace, is elongate, flat and wide, and densely packed with tubercles and tufts of short hair. In Callianassa, the carapace is smooth and naked and ends in a short conical or 3- to 5-pronged rostrum. The pereiopods of the first pair are equal in Upogebia, unequal in Callianassa.
The five species of Upogebia enumerated here all belong to the nominotypical subgenus Upogebia, which is characterized by the presence of one or more spine(s) on the anterolateral margin of the carapace, just behind the eye, and by the pereiopods of the first pair that are subchelale. There are no epipods on the pereiopods.