Tuesday, December 23, 2025

[Crustacea • 2024] Tiwaripotamon keeae • A New miniature Species of Freshwater Crab (Decapoda: Potamidae) from the China-Vietnam Border in Napo, Guangxi


Tiwaripotamon keeae 
 Huang, Shih & Ahyong, 2024


Abstract
A new miniature species of freshwater crab from the genus Tiwaripotamon Bott, 1970 (Potamidae), is described from a montane karst area in southern Napo, at the China-Vietnam border. It is the twelfth known species of the genus, and is also the smallest known, with the largest adult specimen observed barely exceeding 20 mm in carapace width. Apart from the small size, features of the eyes, carapace and ambulatory legs further set Tiwaripotamon keeae sp. nov. apart from its congeners. Pairwise genetic distances of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene also support it as a distinct species.

Crustacea, COI, karst, limestone, Potamiscinae, systematics


Tiwaripotamon keeae sp. nov. 


Chao Huang, Hsi-Te Shih, Shane T. Ahyong. 2024. Tiwaripotamon keeae sp. nov. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae), A New miniature Species of Freshwater Crab from the China-Vietnam Border in Napo, Guangxi.  Zootaxa. 5476(1); 166-176. DOI: doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5476.1.16