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Issue: Vol. 5590 No. 1: 20 Feb. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-02-20
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5590.1.6
Page range: 113-123
Abstract views: 92
PDF downloaded: 8

A new species of Louisea Cumberlidge, 1994, a freshwater crab from the Ekom-Nkam Waterfall, Cameroon (Brachyura: Potamonautidae: Liberonautinae)

Département de Gestion des Écosystèmes Aquatiques; Institut des Sciences Halieutiques; Université de Douala à Yabassi; Douala- Bassa P.O. Box 7236; Cameroon.; Museum fur Naturkunde; Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science; Invalidenstrasse 43; 10115 Berlin; Germany.; Unit of Biodiversity Discovery and Conservation; Cameroon Association for Research on Crustaceans and Others Aquatic Resources; Obala P.O. Box 43; Cameroon.
Museum fur Naturkunde; Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science; Invalidenstrasse 43; 10115 Berlin; Germany.
Department of Life Sciences; The Natural History Museum; London; SW7 5BD; UK.
Department of Biology; Northern Michigan University; Marquette; MI 49855-5376; USA.
Crustacea Central Africa taxonomy Louisea cataracta n. sp. ecology conservation

Abstract

A new species of Louisea Cumberlidge, 1994 (Brachyura: Potamonautidae: Liberonautinae) is described from the Nkam River below the Ekom Nkam Waterfalls, near Melong (5.061728°N, 10.030878°E), in the tropical rainforests of Cameroon. The new species is recognized by a unique combination of characters of the carapace, thoracic sternum, and male cheliped, and is supported as a separate lineage by a phylogenetic analysis of species of Louisea based on mtDNA (COI and 16S rRNA). Notes are provided on the ecology and the conservation of L. cataracta sp. nov..

 

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