Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5717 No. 1: 4 Nov. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-11-04
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5717.1.7
Page range: 115-126
Abstract views: 167
PDF downloaded: 11

A new genus and new species, Montinumen cryptovium gen. nov. et sp. nov. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae), the first cave-dwelling freshwater crab in Yunnan, Southern China

University of Washington, Seattle, 1400 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA, 98195-4550
Australian Museum, 1 William St, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China
Crustacea Yunnan cave-dwelling crab new genus new species 16S rDNA

Abstract

A new genus and new species of freshwater crab, Montinumen cryptovium gen. nov. et sp. nov., is described from Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, southern China based on morphology and mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences. This is the first record of a cave-dwelling freshwater crab species in Yunnan province. This species has elongated pereiopods and relatively smaller eyes, but its pigmentation and corneas do not exhibit troglobitic features. Montinumen cryptovium gen. nov. et sp. nov. superficially resembles Tiwaripotamon Bott, 1970, but it can be easily distinguished by the form of its carapace, third maxilliped, and male first gonopod. Molecular data derived from mitochondrial 16S rDNA supports the establishment of this new genus.

References

  1. Absar, P.F., Mitra, S. & Kharkongor, I.J. (2017) Teretamon spelaeum, a new species of freshwater crab (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae) from a limestone cave in Meghalaya, India. Zootaxa, 4365 (3), 302–310. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4365.3.2
  2. Bott, R. (1970) Die Süßwasserkrabben von Europa, Asien, Australien und ihre Stammesgeschichte. Eine Revision der Potamoidea und der Parathelphusoidea (Crustacea, Decapoda). Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main, 338 pp.
  3. Chu, K.L., Ma, X.P., Zhang, Z.W., Wang, P.F., Lü, L., Zhao, Q. & Sun, H.Y. (2018) A checklist for the classification and distribution of China’s freshwater crabs. Biodiversity Science, 26 (3), 274–282. [in Chinese with English summary] https://doi.org/10.17520/biods.2018062
  4. Chu, K.L., Zhou, L.J. & Sun, H.Y. (2017) A new genus and new species of freshwater crab (Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae Ortmann, 1896) from Yunnan Province, China. Zootaxa, 4286 (2), 241–253. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4286.2.7
  5. Crandall, K.A. & Fitzpatrick Jr. J.F. (1996) Crayfish molecular systematics: using a combination of procedures to estimate phylogeny. Systematic Biology, 45 (1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/45.1.1
  6. Dai, A.Y. (1999) Fauna Sinica: Arthropoda Crustacea Malacostraca Decapoda Parathelphusidae. Potamidae. Science Press, Beijing, xiii + 501 pp., 238 figs., 8 maps. [in Chinese]
  7. Dai, A.Y. & Naiyanetr, P. (1994) A revision of the genus Tiwaripotamon Bott, 1970, the freshwater crabs from China (Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae). Sinozoologia, 11, 47–72.
  8. Davie, P.J.F., Guinot, D. & Ng, P.K.L. (2015) Anatomy and functional morphology of Brachyura. In: Castro, P., Davie, P.J.F., Guinot, D., Schram, F.R. & von Vaupel Klein, J.C. (Eds.), Treatise on Zoology – Anatomy, Taxonomy, Biology – The Crustacea, complementary to the volumes translated from the French of the Traité de Zoologie. 9(C)(I). Decapoda: Brachyura. Part 1. Brill, Leiden, pp. 11–163. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004190832_004
  9. De Man, J.G. (1907) On a collection of Crustacea, Decapoda and Stomatopoda, chiefly from the Inland Sea of Japan, with descriptions of new species. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, Series 2, 9 (11), 387–454, pls. 31–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1907.tb00453.x
  10. Herbst, J.F.W. (1782–1790) Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse nebst einer systematischen Beschreibung ihrer verschiedenen Arten. Erster Band. Mit XXI Kupfer-Tafeln und Register. Krabben. Joh. Casper Fuessly, Zürich and Gottlieb August Lange, Berlin und Stralsund, iv + 274 pp., 21 pls. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.62813
  11. Huang, C., Ebach, M.C. & Ahyong, S.T. (2020a) Bioregionalisation of the freshwater zoogeographical areas of mainland China. Zootaxa, 4742 (2), 271–298. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4742.2.3
  12. Huang, C., Huang, S.Z. & Shen, Z.X. (2020b) A new long-legged terrestrial freshwater crab, Calcipotamon puglabrum gen. nov. et sp. nov. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae), from Hainan Island, China. Zootaxa, 4766 (3), 447–456. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4766.3.4
  13. Huang, C., Ahyong, S. & Shih, H.-T. (2020c) The second known stygomorphic freshwater crab from China, Phasmon typhlops gen. nov. et sp. nov. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Potamidae), diverged at the beginning of the Late Miocene. ZooKeys, 1008, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1008.58854
  14. Huang, C., Wang, J. & Shih, H.-T. (2020d) A new genus and two new species of freshwater crab (Crustacea: Brachyura: Potamidae) with unusual coiled tip of male second gonopods from Yunnan, southwestern China. Zoological Studies, 59, e24. https://doi.org/10.6620/ZS.2020.59-24
  15. Huang, C., Shih, H.-T. & Mao, S.Y. (2016) Yuebeipotamon calciatile, a new genus and new species of freshwater crab from southern China (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Potamidae). ZooKeys, 615, 61–72. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.615.9964
  16. Huang, C., Shih, H.-T. & Ng, P.K.L. (2017) A new genus and new species of Potamidae (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamoidea), the first stygomorphic cave crab known from China and East Asia. Zootaxa, 4232 (1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4232.1.5
  17. Kalyaanamoorthy, S., Minh, B.Q., Wong, T.K., von Haeseler, A. & Jermiin, L.S. (2017) ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods, 14, 587–589. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4285
  18. Klaus, S., Mendoza, J.C., Liew, J.H., Plath, M., Meier, R. & Yeo, D.C. (2013) Rapid evolution of troglomorphic characters suggests selection rather than neutral mutation as a driver of eye reduction in cave crabs. Biology Letters, 9 (2), 20121098. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2012.1098
  19. Minh, B.Q., Schmidt, H.A., Chernomor, O., Schrempf, D., Woodhams, M.D., von Haeseler, A. & Lanfear, R. (2020) IQ-TREE 2: new models and efficient methods for phylogenetic inference in the genomic era. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 37, 1530–1534. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa015
  20. Mitra, S., Payra, A. & Chandra, K. (2018) A new species of freshwater crab of the genus Teretamon Yeo & Ng, 2007 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae) from Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. Zootaxa, 4500 (4), 587–595. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4500.4.8
  21. Nester, H. (2021) China’s karst region: infographics. Available from: https://www.circleofblue.org/2010/world/chinas-karst-region-infographics/ (accessed 11 April 2024)
  22. Ng, N.K. & Dai, A.Y. (1997) Sinopotamon baiyanense, a new species of cavernicolous potamid crab (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae) from southern China. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 45, 139–144.
  23. Ng, P.K.L. (2017) Descriptions of two new cavernicolous species of Chinapotamon Dai & Naiyanetr, 1994 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Potamidae) from China. Crustacean Research, 46, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.18353/crustacea.46.0_1
  24. Ng, P.K.L. & Tri, N. (2022) A new semiterrestrial crab from limestone hills in Vietnam (Crustacea: Brachyura: Potamidae: Tiwaripotamon). Zootaxa, 5213 (5), 578–586. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5213.5.6
  25. Ng, P.K.L. & Trontelj, P. (1996) Daipotamon minos, a new genus and species of potamid crab (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura) from a cave in China. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 109, 476–481.
  26. Ortmann, A. (1896) Das System der Decapoden-Krebse. Zoologische Jahrbücher, Abteilung für Systematik, Geographie und Biologie der Thiere, 9, 409–453.
  27. Pan, D., Shi, B. & Sun, H. (2021) A new species of freshwater crab of the genus Teretamon Yeo & Ng, 2007 (Decapoda, Brachyura, Potamidae) from southwestern Yunnan, China. Crustaceana, 94 (9), 1059–1070. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5213.5.6
  28. Ran, J.C. & Chen, H.M. (1998) A survey of speleobiological studies in China. Carsologica Sinica, 17, 151–159. [in Chinese]
  29. Ronquist, F. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2003) MrBayes 3: Bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics, 19 (12), 1572–1574. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btg180
  30. Shi, B.Y., Pan, D. & Sun, H.Y. (2022) A new genus and new species of potamid crab from Yunnan, southern China (Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae: Potamiscinae). Journal of Crustacean Biology, 42 (1), ruac001. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcbiol/ruac001
  31. Shih, H.-T. & Ng, P.K.L. (2011) Diversity and biogeography of freshwater crabs (Crustacea: Brachyura: Potamidae, Gecarcinucidae) from East Asia. Systematics and Biodiversity, 9, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2011.554457
  32. Shih, H.-T., Yeo, D.C. & Ng, P.K.L. (2009) The collision of the Indian plate with Asia: molecular evidence for its impact on the phylogeny of freshwater crabs (Brachyura: Potamidae). Journal of Biogeography, 36, 703–719. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.02024.x
  33. Tamura, K., Stecher, G. & Kumar, S. (2021) MEGA11: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38, 3022–3027. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab120
  34. Thompson, J.D., Higgins, D.G. & Gibson, T.J. (1994) CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic acids research, 22 (22), 4673–4680. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/22.22.4673
  35. Trajano, E. & de Carvalho, M.R. (2017) Towards a biologically meaningful classification of subterranean organisms: a critical analysis of the Schiner-Racovitza system from a historical perspective, difficulties of its application and implications for conservation. Subterranean Biology, 22, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.22.9759
  36. Yeo, D.C.J. & Ng, P.K.L. (1999) Erebusa calobates, a new genus and new species, a troglobitic crab (Brachyura: Potamidae) from Laos. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 19 (4), 908–916. https://doi.org/10.2307/1549310
  37. Yeo, D.C.J. & Ng, P.K.L. (2007) On the genus Potamon and allies in Indochina (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 16, 273–308.
  38. Zhang, Z.W., Pan, D., Hao, X.Y. & Sun, H.Y. (2020) Two new species of freshwater crabs of the genera Eosamon Yeo & Ng, 2007 and Indochinamon Yeo & Ng, 2007 (Crustacea, Brachyura, Potamidae) from southern Yunnan, China. ZooKeys, 980, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.980.52186
  39. Zhao, J.D., Xu, Y.Y. & Huang, C. (2022) Jianghuaimon dabiense gen. nov. et sp. nov. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae), a new genus and new species of freshwater crab from eastern-central China. Zootaxa, 5168 (4), 431–440. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5168.4.3

How to Cite

Zhao, J.-D., Huang, C. & Ma, K. (2025) A new genus and new species, Montinumen cryptovium gen. nov. et sp. nov. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae), the first cave-dwelling freshwater crab in Yunnan, Southern China. Zootaxa, 5717 (1), 115–126. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5717.1.7