Genus Leiogalathea Baba, 1969 Leiogalathea Baba, 1969: 2 (gender: feminine).— Baba 2005: 88.— Baba et al. 2008: 83 (compilation).— Baba et al. 2009: 133.— Macpherson & Baba 2011: 63. Liogalathea Baba, 1990: 962 (misspelling). Type species. Galathea imperialis Miyake & Baba, 1967, by original designation. Diagnosis. (Modified from Baba et al. 2009; Macpherson & Baba 2011). Carapace dorsally unarmed, surface transversely convex, with few uninterrupted transverse striae and numerous short and scale-like ridges of different length, usually with numerous short setae and scattered stiff long setae, laterally with a few spines; anterior cervical groove barely discernible. Rostrum triangular, dorsally flat or concave, with 0–9 lateral teeth, usually obsolescent. Lateral limit of orbit rounded. Sternum broader than long, maximum width at sternites 6 and 7; sternite 3 relatively short, anterolaterally produced; anterior margin of sternite 4 broad, often contiguous to entire posterior margin of preceding sternite. Abdomen unarmed, smooth, with sparse long and thick uniramous setae; telson subdivision nearly complete. Ocular peduncles short relative to breadth, cornea not dilated. Antennular article 1 with strong distolateral spine, strong distodorsal spine and with or without small or minute distomesial spine. Antennal peduncle not reaching end of rostrum. Antennal article 1 armed with distomesial spine only, article 2 with distomesial and distolateral spines. Short flagellum on Mxp1. Mxp3 merus with strong median spine and with or without minute distal spine on flexor median margin, distinct spine on extensor distal margin, carpus, propodus and dactylus unarmed. P1–4 with stiff long setae. P1 spinose, triangular in cross section. P2–4 dactyli distally ending in a strong claw, with row of distinct flexor teeth. Gonopods 1 and 2 in males present. Remarks. Baba (1969) designated Galathea imperialis Miyake & Baba, 1967 as the type species of the genus Leiogalathea, but later considered L. imperialis as a junior synonym of L. laevirostris (Balss, 1913) (Baba, 1990). Therefore, L. laevirostris has been inadvertently listed as the type species of the genus in more recent studies (e.g. Baba 2005; Baba et al. 2008; Macpherson & Baba 2011) although the type species of Leiogalathea remained Galathea imperialis. Here, we resurrected Leiogalathea imperialis from synonymy as a valid species.

Published as part of Rodríguez-Flores, Paula C., Macpherson, Enrique & Machordom, Annie, 2019, Revision of the squat lobsters of the genus Leiogalathea Baba, 1969 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Munidopsidae) with the description of 15 new species, pp. 201-256 in Zootaxa 4560 (2) on page 206, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4560.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2627514