Pleisticanthoides Yokoya, 1933, a valid genus of deep-sea inachid spider crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Majoidea), with descriptions of two new species from the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu

The inachid spider crab genus Pleisticanthoides Yokoya, 1933, is revalidated and removed from the synonymy of Pleistacantha Miers, 1879, distinguished by the absence of strong spines on the carapace (with only spinules or setae), unarmed pereiopods (with only stiff setae along margins and not spines), possession of a relatively longer, more slender ocular peduncle with a smaller cornea, slender adult male chelae, and a gently curved male first gonopod which has the distal part dorsoventrally flattened and without a subdistal process. Three species are recognised from the Indo-West Pacific region: Pleisticanthoides simplex (Rathbun, 1932) (= Pleisticanthoides nipponensis Yokoya, 1933) from Japan, P. cameroni n. sp. from the Philippines, and P. piccardorum n. sp. from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.