September, 2000
SCAMIT Newsletter
Vol. 19, No.5
collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (catalogue number 19990181). Williams et. al. (1989) gave this crab the common name of flotsam crab.
that with overnight deployments there was too much predation within the traps. Most of the cumaceans had, for instance, been decapitated eaten like popsicles with the “stick” discarded. This was assumed to have been the work of the cirolanid isopods in the samples, but based on observations this year, ostracods may also have been involved. Traps were left out for less than two hours this year, with very gratifying results. Large numbers of peracarids, ostracods, and decapod larvae were collected by the traps. Comparisons of attractiveness of various wavelengths of light in simultaneous deployment proved interesting and will probably be published. Although it was not easy chasing these animals around a dish alive, eventually most species were subdued, separated, and given to Leslie to photograph. The pictures are back and I look forward to seeing them. In most cases these will be the first macrophotographs of these animals.
Planes cyaneus is widespread between 41° north and 35° S in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and southern Atlantic Ocean. It is rare in the northern Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. In the eastern Pacific, it has been reported previously off British Columbia (Hart, 1963) south to Peru (Garth, 1946, as P. minutus). However, there are no previous documented records known to us of the species in California. Although older publications use the name P. minutus for this species, it is not the same species as P. minutus (Linnaeus, 1758), found in the northern Atlantic. See Manning and Holthuis, 1981, for a synonymy and discussion of the nomenclature. The flotsam crab has been collected on driftwood and among stalked barnacles (Lepas spp.) It also associates with sea turtles. Steinbeck and Ricketts (1969, as P. minutus) found a male and a female at the base of the tail of a sea turtle taken off Magdalena Bay,
After the last of the ARMs was harvested and the last samples processed it was time to disassemble the lab for another year. We hope to be back on Guana again next year. Before then there remains much laboratory work to be completed and publications to be produced. NEW RECORD OF THE PELAGIC CRAB PLANES CYANEUS IN CALIFORNIA (BRACHYURA: GRAPSIDAE) MARY K. WICKSTEN Texas A&M University, College Station TX, 77832 MICHAEL D. BEHRENS Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara CA, 93117
Figure 1. Planes cyaneus. Female from western Panama, Gyre station GO100/030, Texas A&M University teaching collection. Note characteristic fringe of setae along propodi of walking legs. Scale = 1 cm.
On 24 August 1999, a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) was found at the intake cove of the Diablo Canyon Generating Plant, San Luis Obispo County. Living on the turtle was a small male crab (carapace width 18.1 mm), which we identified as Planes cyaneus Dana, 1851. The specimen was deposited in the
Baja California, Mexico. There are two color phases of the species: mottled with yellowish to dark brown blotches on a white background, or blue. 7
