Genetic and morphological evidence for cryptic species in Macrobrachium australe and resurrection of M. ustulatum (Crustacea, Palaemonidae)

  • Macrobrachium australe is an amphidromous prawn living in the insular freshwater systems of the Indo-Pacific. Because it possesses few informative morphological characters, that often vary from one habitat to another, M. australe has produced much taxonomic confusion and has historically been described under eight synonyms. Here, 53 specimens collected throughout the Indo-Pacific under the name M. australe were phylogenetically and morphologically examined. Results revealed that what has been called M. australe belongs to at least two distinct species: M. australe, distributed from the Southwest Indian Ocean to the Central Pacific Ocean, and a cryptic species potentially restricted to the Northwest Pacific Ocean, here identified as M. ustulatum, which until now was considered as a junior synonym. Although they are not quite found in the same habitat (lentic-lotic), the presence of these distinct, and reciprocally monophyletic entities in the same rivers on the islands of Palau and Santo strongly favors the hypothesis of two reproductively isolated entities. Six morphological characters, including the proportions of the joints of the male second pereiopod, the shape of the epistome lobe and the armature of the fourth thoracic sternite, are evidenced as diagnostic. A neotype of M. australe is designated and deposited in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris.

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Metadaten
Author:Magalie Castelin, Valentin de Mazancourt, Gérard Marquet, Gabrielle Zimmerman, Philippe Keith
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-461382
DOI:https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2017.289
ISSN:2118-9773
Parent Title (English):European journal of taxonomy : 289
Series (Serial Number):European journal of taxonomy : EJT (289)
Publisher:Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Place of publication:Paris
Document Type:Part of Periodical
Language:English
Year of Completion:2017
Year of first Publication:2017
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2018/04/19
Tag:Amphidromous prawn; Indo-West Pacific; morphology; multi-locus phylogeny
Page Number:27
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0