ABSTRACT
The present study of the giant freshwater prawns, Macrobrachium rosenbergii species group, examined a large series of wild-caught specimens from most of its known distribution. The results confirm that what has been called M. rosenbergii actually belongs to two separate species, easily-separated by a number of diagnostic adult morphological characters. Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) sensu stricto occurs in Australia, Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia (east of Huxley’s Line including Bali) and the Philippines (including Palawan). The second species, which is actually the one more widely fished and extensively cultured in America, Asia and Africa, is here identified as M. dacqueti (Sunier, 1925), and occurs throughout South and Southeast Asia, as well as Indochina. This latter species is one of the most commercially important crustaceans in the world.
KEY WORDS: Taxonomy, Crustacea, Caridea, Palaemonidae, Macrobrachium rosenbergii.
Wowor, D. and Ng, P.K.L. 2007. The Giant Freshwater Prawns of the Macrobrachium rosenbergii Species Group (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea: Palaemonidae). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 55: 321-336.
