Integrative Taxonomy of the Hydrothermal Vent Crab genus Xenograpsus
The hydrothermal vent crab Xenograpsus testudinatus NK Ng, Huang & Ho, 2000, originally described from Kueishan island in northern Taiwan, has been considered an endemic Taiwanese species for over then 20 years and has been the subject of many ecological and physiological studies. Integrated taxonomy of morphological character and genetic analyses revealed that X. testudinatus is a junior synonym of X. novaeinsularis Takeda & Kurata, 1977 described from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. All morphological traits previously suggested to distinguish these two species are shown to be invalid. Mitochondrial COI and 16S rRNA gene sequences analyses from specimens of both species across the distribution, including material from or adjacent to their type localities, confirm that previous diagnostic interspecific characters are intraspecific variations.
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