Vol. 49 No. 4, 2010

Using Molecular Tools to Establish the Type Locality and Distribution of the Endemic Taiwanese Freshwater Crab Geothelphusa chiui Minei, 1974 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Potamidae), with Notes on the Genetic Diversity of Geothelphusa from Eastern Taiwan

Peter K. L. Ng¹, Hsi-Te Shih^2,*, Tohru Naruse³, and Jhy-Yun Shy⁴

¹Tropical Marine Science Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260, Republic of Singapore
²Department of Life Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
³Transdisciplinary Research Organization for Subtropical and Island Studies, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 907-1541, Japan
⁴Department of Aquaculture, National Penghu University, Penghu 880, Taiwan

Peter K. L. Ng, Hsi-Te Shih, Tohru Naruse, and Jhy-Yun Shy (2010) The potamid freshwater crab genus Geothelphusa reaches its highest diversity in Taiwan, and since the last major revision in 1994, substantial progress has been made in confirming the identities of the various species.  Despite those efforts, the validity of the type locality of G. chiui Minei, 1974, from Nanpu, Hsinchu, northwestern Taiwan, has remained doubtful because repeated efforts to establish its presence at its type locality have been unsuccessful.  DNA sequences of the holotype and paratype of G. chiui show that this taxon belongs to a subclade the members of which are found in southern Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, and that it is the sister species of G. cinerea Shy, Ng and Yu 1994, from central Hualien County.  This study confirms that the stated type locality of G. chiui is incorrect, and it is accordingly revised herein.

Key words: mtDNA sequences, 16S rRNA, Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I.

*Correspondence: Tel/Fax: 886-4-22856496.  E-mail:htshih@dragon.nchu.edu.tw