A new species of land crab, Sesarma Say, 1817 (Decapoda, Brachyura), from the Pleistocene of Jamaica

Terrestrial arthropods are poorly known from the Cenozoic of Jamaica. A probably Late Pleistocene land crab, Sesarma primigenium sp. nov., is described from the Western Cement Company Cave, parish of St. Elizabeth, southwestern Jamaica. The same species is also tentatively recognised from the Late Pleistocene Red Hills Road Cave, parish of St. Andrew, eastern central Jamaica. The propodi of the new species are moderately globose, with an upper margin that is comparatively short and finely granulate ridged; the fingers are obscurely spooned and gaped; and the in-turned fixed finger is in line with, and a litt le shorter than, the basal margin. Of the nine extant endemic members of this subgenus in Jamaica, S. jarvisi Rathbun and S. verleyi Rathbun have poorly defined geographic ranges, but S. bidentatum Benedict is widely distributed in the southern part of the island as, apparently, was S. primigenium.