79 THE RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY 2007 THE RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY 2007 Supplement No. 16: 79–94 Date of Publication: 31 Dec.2007 © National University of Singapore LEUCOSIID CRABS FROM PANGLAO, PHILIPPINES, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THREE NEW SPECIES (CRUSTACEA: DECAPODA: BRACHYURA) Bella S. Galil National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research P.O.B. 8030, Haifa 31080, Israel Email: bella@ocean.org.il Peter K. L. Ng Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Republic of Singapore Email: dbsngkl@nus.edu.sg ABSTRACT. – Thirty-eight species of leucosiid crabs are reported from Panglao in Bohol, the Central Philippines. Of these, three are new to science: Alox bothros, A. chaunos, and Urnalana cristata, while five constitute new records for the Philippines: Leucosia rubripalma Galil, 2003, Myra tumidospina Galil, 2001, Urnalana elata (A. Milne-Edwards, 1874), U. pulchella (Bell, 1855) and U. whitei (Bell, 1855). The new species are described and illustrated, and their affinities with allied taxa discussed Tokoyo triloba Komatsu, Manual & Takeda, 2005, is also synonymised with T. eburnea (Alcock, 1896) KEY WORDS. – Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Leucosiidae, Alox, Urnalana, new species, Philippines. INTRODUCTION The Philippines have featured prominently in our growing knowledge of the Leucosiidae of the Indo-West Pacific. The leucosiid crab material from the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838–1842), Challenger Expedition (1873–1876), Siboga Expedition (1899–1900), Albatross Expedition (1907–1910), and the three MUSORSTOM expeditions conducted under the aegis of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (1976, 1980, 1985) have been studied in part or whole and yielded numerous new and rare species (Bell, 1855a–c; Miers, 1886; Ihle, 1918; Serène & Vadon, 1981; Chen, 1989; Tan, 1996; Tan & Ng, 1995; Galil, 2001a, b, 2003a–c, 2005a, b). The studies by Philippine carcinologists Roxas (1930) and Estampador (1937, 1959) have also added many new records. Two recent contributions by Komatsu et al. (2004, 2005) are also noteworthy for the Philippines. Since early 2000, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR), Singapore, has been conducting studies of the crab fauna of Balicasag Island and the nearby Panglao area in Bohol, the Philippines, with the University of San Carlos (Cebu, the Philippines). Between 2004 and 2005, the Raffles Museum RMBR joined with the Musèum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris, France) and Philippine National Museum (Manila) to conduct two expeditions to Panglao (including Balicasag Island). The expedition material from Panglao and around Balicasag Island was obtained mostly by trawls and dredges, with specimens also coming from coral-brushings (from rubble collected by divers), diving as well as hand-collections from intertidal areas. A good part of the material from Balicasag Island, however, was collected by local shell fishermen using tangle nets set to depths of 500 m (see also McLay & Ng, 2005). These collections and expeditions resulted in extensive series of specimens of leucosiid crabs. On the basis of the studied material, 38 species have been identified to date. Of these, three are new to science: Alox bothros, A. chaunos, and Urnalana cristata, and five constitute new records for the Philippines: Leucosia rubripalma Galil, 2003, Myra tumidospina Galil, 2001, Urnalana elata (A. Milne-Edwards, 1874), U. pulchella (Bell, 1855), and U. whitei (Bell, 1855). The present study complements the previous report on the leucosiid crabs from Balicasag Island by Komatsu et al. (2005) which reports 28 species, two of which were described as new. Interestingly, the present study and that by Komatsu et al. (2005) have only 15 species in common. The greater number of the genera and species reported in this study can be explained by the more extensive sampling in more areas and habitats. Together, the two studies highlight the very rich crustacean diversity present in this part of the Philippines. It must also be emphasised that not all the leucosiid specimens from the present series of collections and expeditions have