| الوصف: |
Brachyuran crabs belonging to the family Palicidae Bouvier, 1898, frequently occur in a wide variety of marine environments (Castro, 2000; Davie et al., 2015). However, the feeding habits, locomotion, reproduction, and larval development of palicids remain practically unknown. The evolution and biological significance of their uniquely reduced, dorsally-placed last pair of pereopods (P5) remained an open question (Castro, 2000), but they have been more recently recorded carrying fragments of sediment or seaweeds with their P5, a behaviour known as carrying behaviour (Guinot et al., 2013), a type of camouflage (Guinot & Wicksten, 2015). This behaviour is probably universal for palicids (Castro & Naruse, 2014). Most species are inhabitants of soft sediments in relatively deep water, whereas some are found in shallow water often associated with coarse sediments near coral reefs or with rocky bottoms. All seem to ingest sediment particles. The taxonomy and biogeography of the 46 known species of Indo-West Pacific palicids have been reviewed by Castro (2000, 2010), Promdam & Nabhitabhata (2012) and Castro & Naruse (2014). |
