ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e61065
A new species of the freshwater crab genus Potamonemus Cumberlidge & Clark, 1992 (Crustacea: Potamonautidae) endemic to the forested highlands of southwest Cameroon, Central Africa
expand article infoPierre A. Mvogo Ndongo, Thomas von Rintelen‡, Neil Cumberlidge§
‡ Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany§ Northern Michigan University, Michigan, United States of America

Corresponding author: Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo ( mpierrearmand@yahoo.fr )

© Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo, Thomas von Rintelen, Neil Cumberlidge.
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Mvogo Ndongo PA, von Rintelen T, Cumberlidge N (2020) A new species of the freshwater crab genus Potamonemus Cumberlidge & Clark, 1992 (Crustacea: Potamonautidae) endemic to the forested highlands of southwest Cameroon, Central Africa. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e61065
Open Access
Abstract
A new species of freshwater crab of the genus Potamonemus Cumberlidge & Clark, 1992, is described from Mount Manengouba Reserve and the Bakossi National Park in the tropical rainforests of southwestern Cameroon, Central Africa. Potamonemus man n. sp. is recognized by characters of the carapace and chelipeds. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequences of three mitochondrial DNA genes (COI, 12S rRNA, and 16S rRNA) that included representatives of all other freshwater crab genera found in Cameroon recovered each of the new species as a distinct lineage. A diagnosis and illustrations of the new species are provided, and it is compared to the other species in this genus. Brief notes are provided on the ecology of the new species and the two other species of Potamonemus. An identification key to the species of Potamonemus is provided and its conservation status discussed.
Keywords
Morphological comparison, Potamonemus man sp. nov., conservation, southwest Cameroon, identification key