Revision of the Parasesarma guttatum species complex reveals a new pseudocryptic species in south-east African mangroves
Sara Fratini
A B G , Stefano Cannicci A C , Francesca Porri D E and Gianna Innocenti F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Biology, University of Florence, via Madonna del Piano 6, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
B Mangrove Specialist Group, IUCN Species Survival Commission, 28 rue Mauverney, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland.
C The Swire Institute of Marine Science and the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
D South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Private Bag 1015, 6140 Grahamstown, South Africa.
E Department of Zoology & Entomology, Rhodes University, 6140 Grahamstown, South Africa.
F Natural History Museum, Zoological Section, University of Florence, via Romana 17, I-50125 Florence, Italy.
G Corresponding author. Email: sara.fratini@unifi.it
Invertebrate Systematics 33(1) 208-224 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS18028
Submitted: 30 March 2018 Accepted: 12 September 2018 Published: 6 February 2019
Abstract
Parasesarma De Man, 1895 is the most speciose genus in the family Sesarmidae (Decapoda: Brachyura: Thoracotremata). In the western Indian Ocean, Parasesarma is represented by five species only, although some genetic evidence suggests that P. guttatum could be a species complex comprising two cryptic species. Accordingly, P. guttatum is here split into two pseudocryptic species, and a new species, Parasesarma capensis, sp. nov., is described. P. capensis, sp. nov. fills the same ecological niche as P. guttatum south of the Mozambique Channel. While variation in mitochondrial DNA and morphological differences clearly distinguish the two species, there is no nuclear genetic variation. This may reflect a short history of reproductive isolation. The distinguishing morphological characters of the new species are the 13–15 rounded tubercles on the movable finger, the upper surface of the palm with three transverse crests (one regularly tuberculate and two pectinated), and the shape of the first gonopod. Phylogenetic inference analyses show a sister-species relationship between P. guttatum and P. capensis, sp. nov., and strongly suggest that at least two East African Parasesarma species need a taxonomic revision. The description of this new sesarmid species from the south-eastern African coast sheds new light on the overall biogeographic patterns and general biodiversity of this taxon within the western Indian Ocean.
Additional keywords: mitochondrial DNA, nuclear marker, Sesarmidae, speciation, systematic relationship, taxonomy.
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