(H. Milne Edwards,1837)
Diagnosis:
Frontal horns with two dorsal teeth. Anterior margin of carapace with several sharply pointed small teeth between small spiniform rostrum and frontal horns. Carapace behind cervical groove with spines. Four or five transverse grooves on second to fifth abdominal somites, not all reaching to base of pleura, and some interrupted dorsally. Atlantic species.
Type:
Type locality: "Habite les Antilles" Type material in MP, no. Pa 421, dry in rather good condition. This type specimen, if not the holotype, is here selected the lectotype. Not located in 1989.
Geographical Distribution:
Western Atlantic region: Bermuda, 5. Florida (USA), Caribbean arc from Cuba to Isla Margarita (Venezuela), Curaçao, and E. Brazil (Espiritu Santo State).
Habitat and Biology:
Depth range from 1 to 300 m, usually between 50 and 100 m. Inhabits the outer parts of coral reef slopes.
Size:
Maximum total body length about 15 cm, usually up to 10 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
Very slight. The species is not the object of a special fishery, but is sometimes caught incidentally in lobster pots at greater depths. Morice (1958: 86) lists the species among the edible Crustacea of Martinique, and states that it is consumed locally by the fishermen, but appears hardly, if ever, on the markets.