Journal of Natural History, 2002, 36, 1671–1685 First zoealstages of Epigrapsuspolitus Heller, E. notatus (Heller)and Gecarcoidealalandii H.Milne-Edwards, with remarks on zoeal morphologyof the Gecarcinidae Macleay (Crustacea: Brachyura) JOSE´ A.CUESTA†, HUNG-CHANG LIU‡and CHRISTOPH D. SCHUBART†1 †Department ofBiology, Laboratory for CrustaceanResearch, University ofLouisianaat Lafayette,Lafayette, LA 70504-2451,USA; e-mail:
[email protected] ‡Department ofLife Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan (Accepted10 April 2001 ) Thecrab family Gecarcinidae Macleay, 1838 currently consists of 18speciesthat aregrouped in four genera. Larval data for the Gecarcinidae were only known forspecies of the genera Cardisoma Latreille,1825 and Gecarcinus Leach,1814. Inthe present paper, the rstzoeal stage of Gecarcoidealalandii H. Milne- Edwards,1837, Epigrapsuspolitus Heller,1862 and E. notatus Heller,1865 are describedand illustrated. Zoeal morphology of the Gecarcinidae is reviewed, takinginto account all previous descriptions and analysing the relationships betweenthe di Verentgenera of Gecarcinidae based on zoeal morphological characters.A seriesof typical morphological features is proposed for the zoea larvaeof this family di Verentiatingthem from the rest of the Grapsoidea. Keywords: Larvalmorphology, Gecarcinidae, Gecarcoidea , Epigrapsus, zoea. Introduction The grapsoid familyGecarcinidae has acircumtropical distribution, with many species known only from oceanic islands. The familypresently consists of 18species that aredistributed