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Vol. 49 No. 5, 2010
On the Identities of Three Common Shallow-Water Swimming
Crabs Portunus hastatoides Fabricius, 1798, P. dayawanensis Chen, 1986, and P. pseudohastatoides Yang and Tang,
2006 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Portunidae): Essentials for Benthic
Ecological Monitoring and Biodiversity Studies
Kingsley
J. H. Wong1,3, Kenneth M. Y. Leung2, and Benny K. K. Chan1,3,*
1Institute
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Life Sciences, National
Taiwan University, Taipei 104, Taiwan
2The Swire Institute of Marine Science, School of
Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
3Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei
115, Taiwan
Kingsley J. H. Wong,
Kenneth M. Y. Leung, and Benny K. K. Chan (2010) The portunid crab Portunus hastatoides Fabricius,
1798, is a widely distributed common deposit feeder in sandy and muddy
subtidal ecosystems in Indo-Pacific waters and has been frequently used
as an indicator species in ecological monitoring studies. The
identification of P. hastatoides
in many previous monitoring studies was somewhat ambiguous and likely
confused by the coexistence of other morphologically similar species
(i.e., P. dayawanensis Chen,
1986, and P. pseudohastatoides
Yang and Tang, 2006), which were often misidentified as . Correct
species identification is crucial to generate accurate results from
ecological monitoring and biodiversity surveys. In this paper, we
redescribe the diagnostic features of these 3 morphologically similar
species, P. hastatoides (but
see below), P. dayawanensis,
and P. pseudohastatoides in
Hong Kong and Taiwanese waters and provide a refined species
identification guide for benthic ecologists and environmental
protection authorities. In the present study, we also found that P. hastatoides in Hong Kong and
Taiwan morphologically differed from one of the types of P. hastatoides (from the Indian
Ocean), suggesting the presence of a cryptic species complex.
Before any extensive revisions are made on the group, we continue to
refer to the Hong Kong and Taiwanese populations as P. hastatoides. Crab
specimens were trawled from marine environments within the Taiwan
Strait where these 3 Portunus
species are common. Key features of each of these species were
identified; these included the morphology of the carapace frontal teeth
and male 1st pleopod.
Key words: Portunus
hastatoides, Benthic Ecological Monitoring, Biodiversity survey,
Swimming crab, Morphology.
*Correspondence: E-mail:chankk@gate.sinica.edu.tw
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