Calcinus rosaceus Heller, 1861
Illustrations. - • C. rosaceus from Red Sea, off Safaga Egypt (in Debelius, 1998 and pers. com. Debelius for locality).. Copyright H. Debelius.
References. - Calcinus rosaceus Heller, 1861: 23 (type locality, Red Sea).
Calcinus rosaceus - Nobili, 1906: 84 (Gulf of Aden). - Forest, 1956: 224 (Gulf of Aden; Mauritius; Nobili and Bouvier specimens). - Lewinsohn, 1969: 50 (Gulf of Aqaba). - Poupin, 1997: 696 (Remarks about C. haigae and C. rosaceus). - Debelius, 1998: 278 (Red Sea, color photograph). - Asakura & Tachikawa, 2003: 729 (Sinai Peninsula, Red Sea).
Calcinus nitidus var. australis Bouvier, 1915: 207 (Mauritius).
Shield and cephalic appendages. - Ocular scale with several terminal spines (usually 2 spines).
Chelipeds (P1). - Upper margin of right chela tuberculated or spinous. Outer face of left palm regularly convex.
Ambulatory legs (P2-P3). - Dorsolateral margins of P3 propodi rounded. Dactyl of P3 subequal to propodus or slightly shorter. Distal pilosity of P3 weak, similar to distal P2. Ventral margin of P3 dactyl with less than 10 spines.
Armament of telson. - Left lobe of telson with several spines disposed on posterior margin only. Right lobe with several spines.
Coloration. - Shield purple-brown. Ocular peduncle multicolored with narrow ring close to cornea. Detailed coloration of ocular peduncle: brown, burgundy or purple, with narrow white ring close to cornea. Distal antennular peduncle blue or dark blue (color not known for this species; arbitrarily dark blue color retained, as for the affiliated C. haigae ). Chela uniformly colored, often grading to paler distally (red purple turning to purple). Ambulatory legs (P2 & P3) without ring(s) or spot(s) (purple-brown background; tip of dactyl white).
Habitat. - Intertidal rocky shores.
Geographic distribution. - Red Sea, gulf of Aqaba, gulf of Aden; Western Indian Ocean, Mauritius. Indo-West Pacific.
Remarks. - Very close to C. haigae, also reported from Mauritius. The two species have similar morphological characters and almost similar coloration. It seems that the only difference is the present (haigae) or absent (rosaceus) of spots at tip of ambulatory legs. This point is verified here on photograph provided by H. Debelius (sp. from Red Sea, without spots). See also remarks under C. haigae.
