Nanhaipotamon in Dongyin Is.

A new species of freshwater crab (Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae) from Dongyin Island, Matsu, Taiwan, defined by morphological and molecular characters, with notes on its biogeography

Hsi-Te Shih, Guo-Xiao Chen and Li-Min Wang

A new species of freshwater crab, Nanhaipotamon dongyinense sp. nov. (Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae), is described from Dongyin Island, Matsu, Taiwan. Based on morphological and molecular (mitochondrial 16S rRNA) evidence, it can be distinguished from its congeners. The biogeography of the species, found on an island 50km from mainland China, is also discussed.

Key words: Biogeography, freshwater crab, mtDNA sequence, Nanhaipotamon dongyinense, new species, 16S rRNA, Taiwan

Fig. 1. Collection sites for Nanhaipotamon species used in this study. For locality names see Table I.

Fig. 2. Nanhaipotamon dongyinense sp. nov.

Fig. 3. (A-C) Dorsal, frontal and ventral views of the fresh-preserved male paratype of Nanhaipotamon dongyinense sp. nov., Dongyin Island, Matsu, Taiwan; (D) live coloration of the female paratype; (E) habitat; (F) a chimney around the entrance of burrow.

Fig. 4. Neighbour-joining tree (Kimura two-parameter model) of Nanhaipotamon spp. and the outgroup Geothelphusa albogilva (GA) in this study based on 551 base pairs of the 16S rRNA gene. The bootstrap values (>50%) at the nodes represent confidence based on the percentage of 2000 bootstrap replications. For abbreviations of haplotypes see Table I.

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Taiwanese Naturalist