A new species of the leucosiid crab genus Bellayra (Decapoda: Brachyura: Leucosiidae) from delta of Đ ồng Nai-Saigon river system, South Vietnam

A new species of crab of the genus Bellayra Trivedi, Naderloo, Viswanathan & Mitra, 2022 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Leucosiidae), Bellayra vietnamica sp. nov., is described from specimens collected from the bottom sediments at the mouth of Soài R ạp River in the downstream Đồng Nai-Saigon River system, South Vietnam. The new species is morphologically most similar to B. sexangula (Alcock, 1896) and B. persicum Trivedi, Naderloo, Viswanathan & Mitra, 2022 in the structure of carapace and in the length of chelipeds, but it can easily be distinguished by the structures of the palm of the chelipeds and male first gonopod.

Two species placed in Bellayra, B. taekoae (Takeda, 1972) and B. nishihirai (Takeda & Nakasone, 1991), do not fit the genus as presently understood and should be referred back to the genus Philyra Leach, 1817 for the time being.