Spotted moon crab

Appearance

Surface of carapace minutely granular and provided with six mid-dorsal tubercles, mid-postero-lateral tubercle of carapace present. Front with straight lobes laterally and a slightly emarginate rostrum medially; antero-lateral margins with five small tubercles followed by three large triangular tubercles; lateral spine 0.2 times carapace width. Cheliped with a five-lobed mid-palmar ridge, second and fourth lobes acuminate, second lobe largest; a finely milled ridge present on outer surface of dactylus in male, absent in female.
The carapace of the spotted moon crab is marked with numerous fine maroon spots. However, the spots on the legs are relatively bigger, with some of the spots connected, forming black or maroon patches. The spots on the males tend to be dark maroon or black, while the ones on the females and immatures tend to be maroon.

Distribution

Type locality: Red Sea
Range: Red Sea (Forskål, 1775, Galil & Clark, 1995); Aden (Galil & Clark, 1995); Mozambique - Mozambique and Delagoa Bay (Barnard, 1950); South Africa - Durban (Barnard, 1950); Indian Ocean (Galil & Clark, 1995); Mauritius (Bouvier, 1915b, Michel, 1964); Andaman Islands (Alcock, 1896); Nicobar Islands (Alcock, 1896); Malaysia - Pinang (Lanchester, 1902), Melaka (Galil & Clark, 1995); Singapore (Nobili, 1903c, Galil & Clark, 1995); Japan - Sagami Bay (Parisi, 1914), Tosa Bay, Yoron-jima, and Ishigaki-jima (Sakai, 1976a); Taiwan - Chi-lung, P'eng-hu, and Lu-kang (Lin, 1949); China - China Sea (Shen, 1940b), Guangdong including Hainan Island (Dai & Yang, 1991); Philippines - Zamboanga (Miers, 1886, Galil & Clark, 1995), Luzon (Ortmann, 1892); Borneo - Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Galil & Clark, 1995); Palau (Ortmann, 1892); Indonesia - Ambon (de Man, 1888d, Ortmann, 1892), west of Celebes (de Man 1896), Lombok, Solor Island, Makassar, Pajunga Island, west of New Guinea, Salayar and Kepulauan Aru (Ihle, 1918), Ambon, Borneo, Bali and Celebes (Galil & Clark, 1995); New Guinea (Galil & Clark, 1995); Australia - (Ortmann, 1892, Galil & Clark, 1995), Dampier Archipelago, Monte Bello Islands, and Maud Landing (Tyndale-Biscoe & George, 1962); New Caledonia (Takeda & Nunomura, 1976).