Les espèces atlantiques du genre Eumunida Smith, 1883 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Chirostylidae)

Specimens of the genus Eumunida have been studied from various localities in the Atlantic Ocean. Comparisons of specimens from northwest and southwest Africa with material of E. picta from the western Atlantic Ocean has revealed two new species: E. bella nov. and E. squamifera sp. nov.

E. squamifera from the coast of Namibia, South West Africa, is distinguished from the two other atlantic species by a scaley striation of the carapace.

The northwest African E. bella and the western Atlantic E. picta, type of the genus, are closely related species, but differ from each other by the number and size of carapace marginal spines, shape of the anterior margin of the third thoracic sternum, and the ridges on the second abdominal segment. Their coloration is also different.

One specimen from the Tasman Sea identified by Gordon in 1930 as E. picta represents a further new taxon, E. australis sp. nov. It is readily distinguished from the three Atlantic species by the number of carapace anterio-lateral spines and the long acute projections of the third thoracic sternum.

All these species belong to the group A, as defined by Gordon (1930).