Squat lobsters of the family Munidopsidae Ortmann, 1898 (Decapoda, Galatheoidea) from the seamounts of the Southeast Pacific Ocean ridges

An extensive sampling effort was conducted in the southeast Pacific, across the Nazca, Salas and Gómez, and Juan Fernández ridges during 2024, encompassing both the Chilean Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and adjacent high seas. During these expeditions, numerous specimens of squat lobsters belonging to the family Munidopsidae were collected. The present collection comprises one species of Galacantha, one new species of the genus Leiogalathea, and six species of Munidopsis, three of them considered here as new species.

The use of morphological and molecular data confirms the validity of the new species, as well as the occurrence in the southeastern Pacific of species cited in the eastern Indo-West Pacific, e. g., M. comarge, southwestern Pacific, e. g., L. rosula sp. nov., and northeastern Pacific, e. g., M. tiburon.