Vol. 61, 2022

(update: 2022.11.16)

Special issue: Systematics and Biogeography of Fiddler Crabs (articles 64–71). Editors: Hsi-Te Shih and Benny K. K. Chan

Phylogeography of the Fiddler Crab Tubuca arcuata (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae) in East Asia and Northern Vietnam

Hsi-Te Shih¹, Min-Yun Liu^2,*, Misuzu Aoki^3s, and Hiroshi Suzuki⁴

¹Department of Life Science and Research Center for Global Change Biology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan. E-mail: htshih@dragon.nchu.edu.tw (Shih)
²Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories, Kaohsiung 852, Taiwan. *Correspondence: E-mail: mylalex@narlabs.org.tw (Liu)
³Wetlands International Japan, Tokyo. E-mail: misuzu_a@wi-japan.org (Aoki)
⁴Department of Fisheries Biology and Oceanography, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan. E-mail: hiroshi.crustacea@gmail.com (Suzuki)

Received 30 December 2021 / Accepted 11 August 2022
Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan

The fiddler crab Tubuca arcuata (Crustacea: Ocypodidae: Gelasiminae) is widely distributed across East Asia and northern Vietnam. Particularly, this species inhabits estuarine mangroves and mudflats of the East Asian continent, as well as the main islands of Japan and the Ryukyus. By comparing sequences of the mitochondrial 16S, cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), and control region genes, two main clades of this species were elucidated. The northern (N) clade was mostly restricted to the region north of the Taiwan Strait, whereas the wide (W) clade could be found throughout the entire range inhabited by this species. Based on the distribution of the ancestral haplotypes of COI and the divergence time of the two clades, our findings suggest that the land bridge barrier present in the Taiwan Strait during glaciations might have played an important role in their cladogenesis, approximately 0.93 million years ago. Here, we propose that the distribution of the ancestral haplotype of the W clade in the Ryukyus and the main islands of Japan was determined by the Paleo-Kuroshio Current, whereas the modern distribution pattern is shaped by the modern Kuroshio Current and other warm currents, during the crab reproduction season in the summer.

Key words: Mitochondrial genes, 16S rDNA, Cytochrome oxidase subunit I, Control region gene, Glaciation, Land bridge, Taiwan Strait.

Citation: Shih HT, Liu MY, Aoki M, Suzuki H. 2022. Phylogeography of the fiddler crab Tubuca arcuata (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae) in East Asia and northern Vietnam. Zool Stud 61:68. doi:10.6620/ZS.2022.61-68.