Metopograpsus messor

(Forskål, 1775)

Lateral margins of carapace entire, distinctly converging backwards; free edges of the postfrontal lobes rounded and blunt, postfrontal region with distinct ridges or markings. Suborbital tooth acute, strongly keeled from tip to base. Exposed surface of the base of the antenna not densely pubescent. Third and fourth pereiopods without pubescence on lower border; fifth pereiopod without a linear fringe of hairs on the upper margin of the propodus. Male abdomen with sixth segment shorter than fifth. Horny terminal endpiece of first male pleopod short. (Türkay 1995)

Type locality: unknown.
Range: Red Sea (Kossmann, 1877, Ortmann, 1894a), Massawa (Nobili, 1906c); Zanzibar (Lenz, 1905); Dar es Salaam (Hartnoll, 1975); Mozambique - Delagoa Bay (Barnard, 1950); South Africa - Natal and East London (Barnard, 1950); Madagascar - Nosy Bé (Lenz & Richters, 1881), Nosy Bé and Nosy Faly (Crosnier, 1965); Seychelles; Persian Gulf - (Stephensen, 1945), Arzanah and Bahrain (Nobili, 1906c), Abu Dhabi (Cooper, 1997); Strait of Hormuz (Stephensen, 1945); Pakistan - Karachi (Alcock, 1900b); India - Pondicherry (Ortmann, 1894a), Bombay, Orissa coast and Ganges Delta (Alcock, 1900b), Bombay, Okha and Umarsadi (Chhapgar, 1957); Arakan coast (Alcock, 1900b); Andaman Islands (Alcock, 1900b); Japan - Amami-shoto, Yaeyama-retto and Ogasawara-shoto (Sakai, 1976a), Ishigaki-jima (Miyake, 1983); Taiwan - Tan-shui and Kaohsiung (Sakai, 1939, 1976), Tan-shui, Kaohsiung, and P'eng-hu (Lin, 1949); Palau (Sakai, 1939, 1976); Indonesia - Noordwachter Island (de Man, 1888d), Bay of Bima and Makassar (Tesch, 1918a); Australia - Broome, W.A. (Rathbun, 1924c); Samoa (Ortmann, 1894a); Hawaiian Islands (Edmondson, 1959); Line Islands - Tabuaeran (Edmondson, 1923); intertidal.

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