Abortelphusa namdaphaensis, a new genus and new species of freshwater crab (Decapoda, Brachyura, Gecarcinucidae) from Arunachal Pradesh, India

What is it about?

During a recent faunistic survey to the Arunachal Pradesh state of India, few examples of a small gecarcinucid crabs collected from semi terrestrial habitat, adjacent to small hill streams of two different localities of Namdapha Biosphere Reserve, in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. After careful examination of the carapace morphology and male gonopod structures, these specimens were recognised as a new genus and species of gecarcinucid crab , and described here from the Namdapha tiger reserve of Arunachal Pradesh, India; Abortelphusa namdaphaensis gen. et sp. nov. is morphologically distinct from other related genera, like Liotelphusa, Globitelphusa and Phricotelphusa in having a well suite of characters, i.e. carapace squarish, surface randomly pitted, a wide frontal margin, ca. 0.5 times of carapace width; epigastric cristae rugose, post orbital cristae indiscernible; third maxilliped exopod with lacking a flagellum; male pleon narrowly triangular, 6th pleonal segment trapezoidal; terminal segment of male first gonopod subcylindrical, outwardly bent, tip not truncated. The relationship of this new genus and species with other gecarcinucid genera from the India is discussed._x000D_

Featured Image